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[ 8 minute read ]

Jumping the gun

Getting the jump; leaping ahead; advancing; pre-emptive forwardness; proactive intent; acting for the future; future investment; or just plain old jumping the gun. Call it what you will, I do it. I can't bear being 'in the now'; the present; a passenger in my own life. I don't feel safe driving myself when I am not in control of the steering or the brakes.

Many of us pay into a pension, an investment for the future. Who knows what the future will be like. I do. There are no photographs of me from the age of eighteen years old until present, barring driving licence and passport pictures, because I knew that there would be a future. I don't pretend to know what will happen tomorrow or in five years time. I am not prescient in that way. I, however, am like many, many other people in that we know that the future will not be the same as the present. And, we, as the public, are not party to the web of information that Governments have. They, the one's who can access this information have an information channel we others can only dream of; 'What's happening in Korea today, Millie?' We don't even know who Millie is!

No, my tiny sphere of existence must be carefully prepared to have future avenues that seque into 'Millie's' answers; or Graham's or Pasha's or Marta's answers. I jump the gun. I try to get a head start. I try to act in a proactive manner in a series of pre-emptive actions and plans.

Have you ever heard the expression 'Eat the meat and spit the bones'? Perhaps, you may with a few miles on your clock have heard 'I have no bones with that' or 'It is all gravy', or even if you have a different education, 'This a bone of contention.' I am not concerned with why there is an obsession with bones in these expressions; I am only concerned with not having any on my plate. Or, if I am to be entirely honest; I don't want to be served any bones or meat that turns out to be gristle. Which, if I allow myself to digress, brings me to 'The fat of the land' meaning the bountiful produce of an environment; hopefully an environment which I have tilled and prepared.

If I have something to do that is a requirement set by another entity I cannot rest until the task is complete and packaged. If I could do tomorrow's work yesterday I would still think it is late, but still within a safe area of making contingency plans that are observant of tomorrow's problems. 

I have a lot of problems with mobile phone companies. The fact that there is a list of which one is the worst is enough for us all to know that it is all of them. I have contingency plans so if I can get one to give up on me and waive the early termination of a contract I can do it within the time it takes to say on the phone 'Consider us separated.' or the time it takes to send an email. I don't need to work out how I can stay connected; quite simply the first thing is never use the same company for more than one connection (mobile phone / broadband/ TV internet / security). It is tricky because there are only four telephone network providers in the UK but it can be done. I have two accounts that use one of the four telephone service providers. I pay two businesses that use the same network. so I cannot be 'locked in' to an agreement or contract as might other people find themselves.

How can we take control then? How can we be proactive or jump the gun or get a headstart? We can't really. We can only make contingency plans wherever we can. I read that fugitives from justice sometimes keep a packed bag of clothes and essentials (passport and money) by the door of an escape route in case they are raided. Nice people used to have 'speed-dial' on their phones - is that still a thing? As a keen cyclist, I have three working bicycles I can use without applying any tools at all to them and two donor bicycles. Why? in case one gets a puncture I need to be somewhere and I am over the drink-drive limit. It won't be a surprise to you if I tell you that I never cycle anywhere outside of my village without a spare inner tube and pump (spoons and spanner too). During the Covid 19 lockdown I could not get a replacement rear wheel - I have six now.

I have such a financial safety margin that the latest budget announcements just made me say, 'So, live with it!' If people choose to give in to their desires for optional and discretionary goods, then you give in to someone else's determinations  so 'Live with it? No, live with yourselves! You made it so for yourself!'

When I say financial safety margin I am not talking about wealth or savings, I am talking about financial commitments that I have not subscribed to because I have spotted an alternative way of doing things. 

Long ago, while still in primary school I recognised that the fastest way to solve a problem is to focus on the problem before focusing on the solution. Sounds about right doesn't it? Except it isn't the right way to do things if you expect a series of problems to arise within a specific field of activity, then you have to go to college or read a book or something beforehand. The first part of this, find the problem before learning the solution may seem a bit wobbly in thinking, because it helps to know where the stop-cock is when you get a water leak, instead of searching for it by moving junk or furniture around. Obviously, on the first day of moving into a property we locate the stopcock, don't we?(rental people might not do this as a matter of course because the water is already on - look for it). That is a contingency plan that negates having to look for it in a later panic. While it is not a great analogy, for quickly solving problems, the stopcock works sufficiently well for me. Stop the problem and then get the DIY book out to learn specifically how to fix the leak is faster than reading a whole DIY book and wait for a leak or a tile to fall off the roof or something. This, I realise, is plainly NOT acting proactively or jumping the gun or getting a headstart. No, our attention, focus and energy should be spent doing something else rather than reading a book and waiting for an problematic event that matches our knowledge. I suggest searching for an event in the future that may need a detailed understanding of the nature of that event. 

A worse case scenario might be armed conflict in the house next door (we are safe if it is in the next street and we can grab our escape bags before they come and get us). Or, if there are aerial attacks we will find the supply of fuel particularly difficult. I am not suggesting stock-piling anything at all not even toilet paper.

(I have just now wasted time putting my boots on to hang my hoodie out to dry when it has already dried in the bathroom by the open window).

Nobody is about to invade the UK (where I live), with people, so it won't be the next street or next door that is isolated from the rest of us. We will all within a geographical or technological region suffer alike. COOP and Marks & Spencers customers have recently had their details hacked including personal details. Personal details, I might add, that the businesses never actually needed in order to do their core activities; everything else is 'Added services'.

Perhaps then, the last especially relevant as an obvious facet, we should create skeleton outlays of future work, if they are to be written, in case a mode of communication is broken. For many, this is their mobile phone as their sole source of digital communication. If lightning hits the right signal relay tower (building) they will be in a high-use log-jam of disconnection, perhaps on the day an assignment, essay or report is due if they work from home (they should have a laptop at least).

I have always be bemused that people think it is funny or ironic when they come across the skit of someone writing a list of 'Things to do Urgent', and at the top of the list is 'Make a list'. That much is the minimum we need to do. If I have a list of things to gather before leaving my house when there is an encompassing flood, I would at least know what to look for before I leave.

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[ 8 minute read ]

You do not want that

Apparently, John Cleese told Prince William, at the Tusk Conservation Awards at London's Savoy Hotel last night, that 'Fawlty Towers' is about 'who is chasing whom.' I never realised that, yet of course it is. The best hand-drawn cartoons for children are all about one character chasing another, especially Tom and Jerry. Prince William, I believe had told John Cleese's that his kids love Fawlty Towers; when I think about it, they would. It is a kid's cartoon using real people; lampooning using a series of chase sequences, often in parallel. 

I am interested in, and like, writing and rarely plan writing anything; relying solely on my creativity (which has been a little lax recently). I like to, if I ever set myself a remit, gather a few mildly obscure words and then just start writing. Such complexity as Fawlty Towers, or even any skit is absolutely beyond just chucking some words at a VDU and seeing what sticks. I have a writing itch and I also have an idea gleaned from outside the OU that makes me just want to spend all the hours I have creating a form derived from the combination of chase and my own idea of a format, one that I have yet to encounter outside of my head.

This isn't it.

 anguish - regret

I was in one of the local Post Office shops a few days ago and allowed a couple of people to go before me. I do anyway when I have a lengthy Post Office transaction to do. However, this time it was different:

Every now and again, I run through my head, scenes of my life, to manually see if I could have done better. (Be careful if you do this because you can end up disgruntled with your life if you do not put in future effort to ameliorate your considered inadequacies).

Like everyone else, I am naturally kind; it is a survival thing, you know, like in a herd I will scratch your back if you scratch mine. However, I am, like everyone else capable of ignoring the needs of strangers. Yeah, I don't like that much. Years ago, I decided that I had to wrestle with myself to beat out of me any deliberate unkindness and especially vicarious meanness. It would be foolish of me to call myself the winner simply because I recognised my faults and wept for others; because I cheated them or ignored their needs or just plain lied and set them on the wrong path; or at least re-inforced an idea that the path they were on was the correct one.

       'Yeah, good idea, leave school and get some experience, I did.'

       'It's okay to lie, everyone does.'

       'Don't worry about them; they can look after themselves'.

A couple of years ago, I was in ALDI and next in the queue. In front of me was a woman who had just had a few items put through the scanner and was struggling to pay for them. I noticed that she mostly had copper coins. She didn't have enough. I had hundreds of pounds (GBP) in  my pocket which i was not about to spend within the next week or so.

       'Excuse me checkout assistant, I will pay for them.'

I offered cash. (I actually should have asked the customer if she would allow me to - but I addressed this a couple of years later, elsewhere with someone else)

The woman customer was surprised, 'Are you sure?' Of course I was; it was less than 5 GBP. The checkout assistant took the money and I said, 'Give the change to the lady.' It was maybe a couple of quid. She thanked me and we went our separate ways. Job done right? No.

A few days ago, idle and lying in bed thinking about getting up, I slipped into review mode, seemingly accidentally. I had been watching videos on kindness the night before though. I remembered the woman paying with coppers in ALDI. Oh no! I realise it was nowhere near enough to just pay for a few items when someone is paying with small denomination coins. Let's extend it a bit:

       She just wanted to pick up a few things as one does and I needlessly paid (except she wasn't buying luxuries)

       She spent all her money on liquid or other recreation for herself

       All the household money had been spent on liquid or other recreation that she did not partake in

       She lives alone and just ran out of food and money.

The list could go on endlessly with as many nuances as we might imagine. However, there are two more extensions that are important:

       She gets more money tomorrow (back then)

       She doesn't get more money tomorrow (back then)

It is only these two that are relevant. If she or others drank all the money the money has gone (it doesn't matter how)

Any help I could have given her back then, or anyone today cannot change the past; it only affects the future. There is no present because it has already gone before we can pause it.

Back then, with hundreds of spare pounds in my pocket, have kindly insisted on taking her around ALDI again to shop for the things she really wanted to buy but could not. I should have given her a basket and carried on myself. She would have, of course, and hopefully, been reluctant to spend my money and would have desired things but not put them in her basket. I, on the other hand should have put into my basket the things she looked at for a moment. I should have asked if she had children and I should have then chosen a few treats. Everything in our baskets I should have then paid for. A few years ago it wouldn't have been more than thirty or forty pounds GBP, or so. 

A few days ago, I wished I could have done it; I truly did. I got up and made some coffee. I would have to do better than I did then, when another situation arises.

I was in one of the local Post Office shops a few days ago and allowed a couple of people to go before me. I do anyway, when I have a lengthy Post Office transaction to do. However, this time it was different.

An elderly man came in with a parcel and he was the second person i let before me.

       'I would like to sent this parcel please.'

He was given the prices for first and second class delivery service.

       'Oh, I don't have enough.'

The second class price was less than three British pounds. I felt an overwhelming shove from my conscience. Bingo! I have cash on me! Hmm...parcel...late November...elderly person (unlikely to be an ebay seller)...Christmas present!

This time, I remembered to be polite. 'I wonder, sir, if you might accept an early Christmas present from a stranger.' With that, I placed five British pounds on top of his parcel, which was the price for First Class delivery.

He prevaricated for a whil, and there was that to-ing and fro-ing that goes on in our minds as to whether to accept or not. He accepted, and then bought second class delivery service for his parcel. He then tried to give me the change. Thinking about that, I could have taken offence at him returning half a Christmas present - joke. He explained to me that it was indeed a Christmas present and because it is fragile he was sending it early, in case it broke, so there would still be time to replace it. I don't really understand the logic behind that. 

And then it happened; but it was dampened to nothing. I had to explain why it was necessary for me to pay for his parcel; not in longhand of course but more as, 'For you, if you do not send the parcel it is a problem and you will be worried about how you can resolve it. For me it is a dozen eggs that I shall not eat in the future.  I am not going to worry if I have no eggs to eat. I won't see it as a problem.' I forgot? or just wasn't compelled to take him round the Post Office shop or ask him if he was hungry. I like to think I am a spiritual person and I was not feeling that I should feed him. He left, and the shopkeeper told me that he wished that everyone thinks like me. Oh no you don't, I thought, Oh no, you don't.

I am broken. You really don't want that! 

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[ 5 minute read ]

I am jealous of the living

They have everything I want. They have ideas and discussions and believe in themselves. I don't believe in myself because I have gathered an idea that I once thought was right and strong, yet was fed to me by someone who also thought the same idea was right. In modern parlance we might call a misogynist a toxic male. Describing an old mind bereft of creativity and eschewing innovation yet promulgating a trope consistent to a time, we might also, if he is male, describe him as a toxic male. Perhaps, there are, due to circumstances, (I am not going to go into the rabbit hole of imagined futures TOO deeply) some men who failed, but not as men in any particular times, but as men who use the same template of 'man-ness' (whatever that is) or success, which I suppose is some kind of dominance in a field of existence, to judge themselves as having the same kind of validity in the modern world to the one that they foolishly believed was their own 'in their day', yet fail to get the same approbation today, if they ever did.

I am jealous because the living can change, while the dead are eternally immutable. The living can always be given a second chance. The dead are judged by their past actions and achievements. I am neither one or the other, because, quite simply, I haven't quite decided which one of us, you or me, is alive and which of us is dead or dying. 

I am jealous of the dead because they no longer care about life. It is in living that we are free from putrefaction; from a stasis of thinking that brings about a codification that is not consistent with pleasant co-operation. This is psychology, not religion. 

Why are you kind? Is it because a monster told you to be so? Is it because a toxic person told you that you should be compliant. I think not, while not recognising myself as a humanist, I am certain you are kind because it suits you to be so.

Christians do not highlight the faults of others. 'Hate the sin, not the sinner.' and when they do not understand something or disagree with it they are advised to 'Eat the meat and spit the bones.' This is consistent with not judging others and not bearing false witness. I suggest, at no time have Christians who have received the Holy Spirit, who attack others, including other people's views, shown that they have given way to a greater knowledge that they fundamentally believe in. (In my mind, they cannot attack unless they exercise free-will, in which cases they dont sleep well)

In learning with the Open University, I am learning how to consider other people as valid in their existence and beliefs by understanding different cultures. I can categorically state that I cannot understand how a toxic promulgation of any religion is acceptable and will never subscribe to it. I am completely open to conversation on humanistic or secular ethics in opposition to any religious viewpoint. I believe that attacking thought is just plain wrong; I studied 'Ethics' with the former London Bible College, one of the last, don't you know?

I am jealous of the living.

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[ 2 minute read ]

Am I human enough now?

I have just been party to a conversation on why Grammarly indicates that an original piece written solely by a single real person (These days we have to prefix 'human' with 'real' to mean a human) has a substantial probability that it has been written by A.I.

My crikeyness! Pull yourselves together! Why would anyone use technology to check if they are human? Quite frankly, I ask myself why anyone would even consider using A.I assistance without recognising an inadequacy in themselves. If a researcher is paid to find stuff and they use A.I. assistance, then they are not doing their job. The whole world that has contributed to the vast information that is available to the A.I. search algorithm has done the job in collaboration with the A.I. tool. Wow! And there are actually people out there who are worried that they will lose their jobs to A.I. It is because they have been using A.I. generative text assistance to fool their bosses into thinking they were valuable employees. Strangely, their bosses have let them do this.

If I ever wrote a book and used Grammarly for some weird and unfathomable reason at ANY stage in the process whatsoever, I would need to include Grammarly as a collaboratoring author on the book cover otherwise I would feel like a fraud. The whole world would be entitled to a substantial share of the royalties.

In the conversation I overheard by dint of being able to read it online (I over-read it then) someone was bemoaning that in rewriting paragraphs, Grammarly A.I. checker came back with a higher and higher probability of it being written by A.I. Clearly, the more focus and skill that was put into the rewrites meant that the rewrites were better and better according to Grammarly A.I. checker. 

       'Oh woe!'

       'Oh no! Your own writing is improving! What are you going to do?'

I think I might be able to see the wood in the forest because I don't rely on technology to help me think.

If Grammarly tells you that you are an A.I. assistive technology algorithm it is giving you a compliment; I am just wondering whether it flirts with really good writers. Let's all aim for Grammarly telling us that there is a 100% probability that the piece we have submitted is A.I. generated and then we know we don't need A.I. assistive technology for writing tasks, and we have returned to being a real human again, without technological mutant augmentation. Otherwise we are just one step away from being a Borg in the Star Trek series.

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[ 4 minute read ]

On Culture

Of course, marketers cannot control customers’ cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics, yet these characteristics are of huge interest.

If there is an hierarchy of customer characteristics then culture would be firmly at the top; it has the broadest and deepest influences on customers, and is the most basic course of a person’s wants and behaviours.

According to Bogachevsky, a friend to Georg Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, one should not allow oneself to adopt any conventions, either those of one’s immediate circle or of those of any other people, he said. ‘From the conventions with which one is stuffed, subjective morality is formed, but for real life, objective morality is needed, which comes only from conscience’.

Culture, as a state of consciousness or predilection to perceive in a particular way, (see the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) comes from observed and learned values that pertain to achievement and success; activity and involvement; efficiency and practicality; progress; material comfort; individualism; freedom; humanitarianism; youthfulness; and fitness and health. These, however, are not universally found, particularly so in large cities.

It is true that different cultural distinctions are found across the world, yet many cultures also exist in any Western city.

Enculturation (noun)

1. The process by which an individual adopts the behaviour patterns of the cultures in which he or she is immersed.

2. The adoption of the behaviour patterns of the surrounding cultures

Acculturation (noun)

1. The modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of contact with a different culture.

2. The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human from infancy onward

3. The process of adopting and assimilating foreign cultural elements.

*Enculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society.

*Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and adjusts to a new cultural environment as a result of being placed into a new culture, or when another culture is brought to you.

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[ 6 and a half minute read ]

Chicken Suited Aliens

When I was little, my parents would make an Easter egg hunt for us kids; my brother, sister and I. We had a big garden and there were a lot of places to hide people, animals, farm equipment, spiders and rats and chocolate eggs. There was always a possibility that going into one of the barns we might find someone sleeping off one of our parents parties the next morning; you know it was Saturday before it was Easter Sunday. We never had to go into the Billy Goat shed and who would, he stunk. Equally, the dog kennels right at the bottom of the garden was also not where we might find sweet treats or colouring books. The spinney left wild at the very furthest from the house was also not a place where any of us were expected to go, and in any case our parents didn't want us to fall down the well covered only by a sheet of steel (just a hole that went down, down, down).

Usually, we kids never had to go much more than sixty or seventy feet from the house and dig somewhere under loose soil. Being the youngest and littlest and having a psychopath eldest brother meant that I had to run as fast as I could, and only in the same direction he ran in, to stop him finding one hoard and then claiming a second one while my sister claimed the third. It didn't help that my mum would say 'Go!' and then call me back to tie my shoe-laces.

These days, zoo-keepers try to stimulate the animals under their care. On really hot days they might give a block of frozen fruit to the fruit eaters like bears or badgers or something. They hide lumps of meat halfway up trees and under logs for lions and tigers to 'hunt' or search for. At the safari-type zoos the staff also don't make sure the visitor's car doors are locked to give the animals something to think about. Bears, lions and tigers might have accidentally opened a car door in the 2010s and still try to get in another car in 2025. It gives them some anticipation of a moment of mild ferocity, something they are good at, followed by something new and tasty for lunch.

I found some more eggs on my doorstep yesterday morning; half a dozen again in an egg box. Sally, my immediate next door neighbour left some in response to me leaving tomatoes on her doorstep in the Summer. But now she has  twice left half a dozen eggs unsolicited, and not in response to being surprised by random tomatoes I left her. Yesterday, the eggs were among the strawberry plants and near the garlic. That is how my path is arranged. The previous time she left some was on All Saints Day, when all the saints are honoured (usually restricted to the Anglican and Catholic faiths) the day after Halloween or All Hallows Eve. It took me a while to figure out the occasion and why Sally might be giving gifts. I think that she hopes that some kindness will stick to her gift. She is that kind of woman; a little mysterious and quite enchanting. Beneath her clever and calm demeanor is a cheeky and fun person. Quite delightful, if you can catch her unawares with one of her thoughtful pursed lip smiles.

When I found the eggs yesterday I felt like a bear finding a block of frozen mixed fruit. 

       'Where did this come from? Who left it here? Why is it here? How should I respond?' I don't think bears really think that but they do have their curiousity piqued.

Another one of my neighbours told me that another woman in our road sometimes leaves eggs on his doorstep, so I had to consider the probability that it was the same woman. I don't think so. Now I went down a route of thinking that the previous gift, on All Saints Day, follows a religious bent or at least an observance of a religious date as a reason to give a gift without initiating embarrassment in the recipient I am sticking to that theory. With that in mind I thought that I would look at some dates to try to understand how it, the 9th of November, might trigger a moment of generosity.

I fully believe that we should all be able to give gifts to people, even strangers, without causing them to have a guilt that is only dissolved by reciprocation. Unfortunately, this seems to only be allowed on someone's birthday or wedding day but there is a note written in the spirit world that there is a debt to be repaid. There isn't really, it is a note that adds to the collective understanding of a person's life. Immanuel Kant, the philosopher had ideas on debt when he discussed 'Ethics'. He disappointingly doesn't mention spirits though. He did mention that we are compelled to visit people in hospital even though we don't want to.

I, however, need to know who the gift giver is and why I have gotten a gift. I never got unsigned Valentine cards from secret admirers so I have no practice in wearing a mantle of arrogance and believing that eggs or cards fall from the sky because I deserve them. I am pretty certain Sally left the eggs, but the Sherlock Holmes in me is playing the video tape of my perception in the moments preceding my discovery to watch for any aliens or someone in a chicken suit running away and clicking their heels in the air in unsuppressed delight and glee. Reality has it that I washed some clothes and never did look out of the window before I stepped out with the dripping items and discovered the eggs.

I searched the internet for a special occasion on November the 9th. There were 52 days left until the end of the year. Neither Sally or I are 52. Some actors, whom I have never heard of, were born on that day in the past. I couldn't find anything relevant. Finally, spent from looking at two websites and exhausted by my search I relaxed. Then it hit me: Remembrance Sunday was yesterday, and it just happened to fall on the 9th of November this year. Now, it makes a bit more sense. All Souls Day is the 2nd of November, the day after All Saints Day. It is a religious date in the Christian calendar.

Sally, is way brighter than she might first appear to someone who doesn't care to notice her. I had already worked out that she didn't leave the eggs late on Saturday, because she knows the rats will be able to work out how to open the egg box. I rather fancy that the rats near us read books and watch us with binoculars.

An identical gift given twice on two consecutive days is worth more on the first day. The Diminishing Margin of Utility in economics tells us that. As a foodstuff, a dozen eggs in two days invites over-consumption. Sally doesn't want to contribute to my death from blocked veins caused by too much cholesterol. So, now I am wondering if I am still alive in all my capacities. Perhaps Sally bewails my demise in some way and she honours me on Remembrance Sunday instead of All Souls Day. Perhaps I was a better person last week or last year. 

I am glad I am a curious bear looked after by considerate keepers instead of a morose camel or frentic zebra poking my head through open car windows mindlessly munching on popcorn. Now I am even more curious because Sally made me notice myself because I notice her.

Thank you Sally for making my Sunday morning interesting.

The day after All Saints Day is All Souls Day when the dead are honoured.

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[ 2 minute read ]

Check your behind

Primarily, I am interested in marketing, entrepreneurship, and business. On an A3 sheet of paper, Blu-Tacked to my wall, I wrote about a year ago: 

Positive Transfer Effect The useful effects of past experience are technically known as Positive Transfer Effect. However, people often possess relevant knowledge, but fail to apply it to a current problem. - Michael Eysenck (1996) Simply Psychology, Ch 22, Problem Solving, p398. 

All well and good if we possess relevant knowledge and do apply it to a current problem, isn't it? We should be able to come out smiling. Yet, Mark Twain said, 'It ain't what you know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.' 

I find that tortuous; you know, bendy, twisting? What he is leaning into is the idea that if we know that something is wrong and act as though that thing is right, then we will get into trouble. 

Josh Kaufman, in 'The Personal MBA' wrote,'Paradoxically, one of the best ways to figure out whether or not you're right is to actively look for information that proves you wrong.' (something that I try to remind myself of whenever I am awake). In truth, I have an A4 piece of paper stuck to my wall with writing that says, 'In social science, hypotheses are tested in their negative form. This form of hypothesis is called the null hypothesis. The intent is to prove the positive hypothesis'.

'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results' I cannot say that Albert Einstein did or didn't say this because the internet tells fibs, in that someone says he didn't say it and then everyone else does, and then by sheer weight of numbers a 'truth' arises. 

Obliquely, I am talking about Confirmation Bias, which is the tendency to pay attention to information that supports our own conclusions and ignore all other contrary information. But this is a case of, 'It worked yesterday, so it will work tomorrow.'

Check your behind. Why did it work?

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[ 3 minute read ]

Perennial tomato plants

There's a bunch of plants that bear fruit common to our kitchen that belong to the same plant family; Solanaceae. The potato plant and tomato plant belong to this family; as does the pepper plant and aubergine (Am. eggplant). Belladonna, Henbane and Mandrake, Petunia and Tobacco plant are also in this family.

I recently heard that tomato seeds are going to be really expensive next this / next year because of transportation problems. I like to drink hot chocolate instead of caffeinated drinks but cacao prices have rocketed over the last couple of years, and costs drive me away from cocoa drinks. I don't think England is warm enough for me to grow a cacao tree yet, but I am aiming at producing year-round tomatoes. But I might have to trick the plants into mutating a bit.

I grow tomato plants from seeds each year; this year I tried a heritage variety but cross-fertilisation produced the wrong tomato. 

A year or two ago, I bought cheap tomato seeds from Simply Seeds. Pepper and Tomato seeds look very similar to one another and out of about forty germinations two were pepper plants. One YouTube video told me that pepper plants are perennials - you lift them before the frost gets them and store them in a dark cupboard so they can hibernate, I think. 

I have noticed that the weird weather in the UK fools many of my plants. I have had strawberry plants flowering in October and tomato plants that should die after producing their fruit, stay alive. Tomato plants are either indeterminate or determinate in their growth. Indeterminate, like Money Maker tomato plants, keep growing and growing, like bushes. These are the sort that Grandad pricks out the new shoots from the stems; ostensibly to force the plant to send nutrients to producing fruit. I think it is because frost kills tomato plants.

I have a young 30cm tomato plant that germinated a few weeks ago. The dry air also prevented many of my tomato plants from producing fruit and growing bigger this year. However, this Autumn, some of them are invigorated by more humid air; like, I suppose they had the nutrients but not the intent. Clever plants! I have decided to grown on the young tomato plant and one of the determinate tomato plants that is supposed to die after producing its fruit, which it should produce all in one showing. That showing should have been months ago, yet I picked the last tomato from it yesterday. Strangely, it has recently produced side shoots that are producing flowers. This means that it is, I think, in its second year of life. Did the dry air of Summer trick it into thinking there was a very warm Winter? 

So, I have a pepper plant producing flowers, a young tomato plant producing flowers and a determinate tomato plant, which I know to be a Rio Grande type, making new growth and producing flowers; all at the wrong time of year. I shall bring them in and grow them on, on one of my window sills. (In England, windowsills are on both inside and outside of our rooms. The inside ones are wide and level enough to put things on). I just remembered that one of the heritage tomato plants (determinate) is producing new side shoots, so i shall have to dig that one up too and bring it inside. I am hoping that because it is more wild than the others as in less husbandry, that it will, through cross-fertilisation, produce fruit that has seeds for perennial plants. Already, it didn't produce purple fruit, like it should have done.

I am hoping that I have two perennial tomato plants and a perennial pepper plant but I may have to find and buy another pepper plant to keep it company, despite pepper and tomato plants being in the same family.

Many people bemoan climate change as calamitous but I think they do this very much from their dominant human position. 'I love my planet' and 'Saving the World' means taking the comfort of humans out of the solution, surely.

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[ 6 minute read ]

The Kent Landings

Invasion!

Today, 14th October, is Battle of Hastings Day (Well, it is in my head).

On the morning of 14th of October 1066, some Vikings, pretending to be Normans because they had lived in Northern France for a couple of generations, decided that since they were on English soil they might as well attack the Anglo-Saxon Army that came to meet them for a friendly cup of tea. Fresh from fighting his brother, Tostig, and King Harold Hardrada's invading force (more pesky Vikings) at Stamford Bridge near York, Harold, King of England since only the 6th of January, got into an argument with Duke William of Normandy. Their armies joined in and many men died at the scene. William went on an eleven week 'jolly' on the way to visit London, and with a massive hangover, was crowned King of England on Christmas Day that same year. The newspapers had the headline, 'Dire consequences from Christmas prank'.

It could have happened like that but historians are fairly well united in believing that William of Normandy was already intent on claiming the crown of England because there was an agreement between him and Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-1066) that William should be the next King if England. The problem is, and this is what historians believe, is that Harold Godwineson also believed his own conversation with Edward the Confessor included Edward's wish for Harold to be the next king of England. 

Just to muddy the waters, Harold's outlawed brother Tostig had persuaded Harold Hardrada, a Norwegian king, that England was ripe for the taking. They attacked near York at Stamford Bridge, in the North of England, over 250 miles from Hastings on the South England coast that faces the English Channel. A couple of websites say that the car journey would be about five hours; but King Harold and his army, once intelligence reports reached Harold of a gathering invasion about to invade across the channel, had to walk. We are told that Harold's army met the Norman invaders and William some miles inland from the English Channel (La Manche - 'the sleeve').

The whole period is a story-writers dream for plots, twists, betrayal, fighting, glory, death, punishment, fear and celebration. Yet, the battle of Hastings is an open sore on English pride. I don't really know why. The English language is a mix of French, German, Latin, and a few words from the indigenous people and from overseas conquest. Conquest is entirely English. Perhaps that is why it is so shameful to lose such a monumental battle to an illegitimate man who took advantage of a family problem. 'It just isn't Cricket!'

Harold was son of Godwine, Earl of Wessex. In those days, England was split into a handful of powerful earldoms and a few little ones. Godwine was the most powerful Earl with the greatest resources at hand. Unfortunately, his sons were unruly, and both Sweyn and Tostig were a bit feisty. In those days, upsetting the king through piracy off the English shore meant that you would be outlawed, which meant that anyone could legally murder that person without having to pay compensation to the affected family. You could win favour and return to the English fold, by doing something to please the king, but Tostig, decided to invade with the king of Norway's army, on the 25th September 1066.

Harold, upon the death of his father, who died in 1053, became the leader of the strongest earldom in England. 

Godwine, Harold's father was made an earl (circa 1018) by King Cnut. Godwine dominated Edward the Confessor. Edward outlawed Godwin for not following his wishes. Godwine attacked England and Edward relented. We should also be aware that Godwine was also held responsible for the murder of one of the claimants to the throne upon Cnut's death. After the battering of Edward the Confessor in a battle in 1052 and a subsequent obsequious buttering up of Edward the Confessor, who had after all, married Godwine's daughter, Edith in 1045. The Godwine famiy assumed that they would rightlfully claim the English throne upon Edward the Confessor's death, since he had no issue (rightful heirs). Edward, however, was pro-Norman and had wanted to fill his court with Normans. William of Normandy believed he had been told by Edward the Confessor that he should claim the throne of England. Hence we have a battle in 1066.

I celebrate the 14th October as the day that a bullying family was crushed. I can't stand conniving and snivelling sycophants, who desire to seize power to control others for a menacing gathering of wealth. Bullies, greedy people, liars, cheats and charlatans, I see, in the Bayeau Tapestry, your leader poked in the eye with an arrow 959 years ago. And be clear on this, it is not the arrow of Love that Cupid shoots, that I see.

The Bayeaux Tapestry is an embroidery that shows the sequence of events of the Battle of Hastings as seen by the winners.

I heard that such is the underlying anxiety still felt by the Norman attack in 1066 that there is a monument erected by the English in a French cemetary for the fallen French soldiers of World War Two that reads something like this: 'Despite you attacking us in 1066 we have forgiven you and came to save you in this war.' A little contentious in its thrust if it is true. Yet, there was an underlying current of resentment and scorn that cannot be easily dismissed. If the inscription exists on a monument, it is of its time and for me is indicative of British humour. Again, if it is true, I am certain that there is no real resentment towards the French soldiers of the second World War. Rather, it is a salute to the fallen French who deserved honourable recognisance, but with the dark and stiff upper lip humour of the British of that time. I think it is one of the saddest inscriptions that I can ever imagine coming across. It, if it exists, is a show of comradeship not division; of loss not gain in position. It kind of says: 'We are family, and as family we are loyal'.

Thank you to the French for your wonderful language and your laws that came from the consequences of the Battle of Hastings, particularly from William the Conqueror's descendent King Henry II, (great-grandson) who codified much of England's laws.

The 14th of October is the day that England was rescued from tyranny.

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    Mental Health

[ 9 minute read ]

You frazzled yourself

Oh me oh my! Everybody is after something all the time. Such dissatisfaction I have never before experienced. I keep banging on about people seeking validity of themselves; because I am amazed at how pernicious it is. I had a conversation with my doctor a while ago and forgot to ask if people were different before the Covid 19 thing. Of course, anyone who followed the rules and locked themselves down will be different to how they should be now. Likewise, anyone who didn't lock themselves down will be different to how they should be because other people locked themselves down.

An expansion: I didn't lock myself down. I just carried on as usual. Oh no! How irresponsible! No, I had no need to change what I do to conform with not spreading diseases. When the UK Government said 'socially isolate yourselves' to the people, I thought, no change there then. I found it interesting that most people were not actually acting normal for themselves, when they stayed at home. Normal for me! Welcome to my world. 

I read somewhere that people have a distorted way of recalling the past. Most people, I believe, cannot remember what the world was like five years ago. I understand that we use selective memory to recall our childhood. It never rained during Summer holidays at the sea-side, for example. I don't think social media chatting platforms have changed much from how they were five or six years ago, except that everyone seems to think that it is entirely normal to use one. I have an email from my tutor that contains a link to an app to be able to make a booking for a one-to-one 'tutorial' initial telephone meeting. Why? Why does the tutor think that students want to meet the person who marks their assignments? And, why an email address to send a link to an app to be able to receive a telephone call? It is really confusing to me. Either I was affected by Covid, or I am one of the few who wasn't. 

The point I am getting at, in a round-about way, which I am only now starting to understand, in the way people now process anything, is that conventional rules for communication are ignored, unheard of, or obsolete. There is a technological reason for that, but it is the human factor that interests me. 

Have technology will use it

I met a woman in her sixties in an ALDI car park, 2021. Just in passing, but I like to talk; you know, to people, not VDUs - like computer screens and phone screens. Let's just separate that out: Typing (texts and emails); looking at a moving picture (face-time, video-conferencing); and telephone calls. Talking to people is none of those. Phone calls is talking to thin air, hoping that we are heard. Typing is moving our fingers and the only response is alpha-numeric characters appear on a screen; and talking to a screen is precisely that. There is no-one there. It is all fantasy. We are all just hoping that someone is there to receive our message. No, we TRUST that there is someone there. We believe it. Believing someone is there when they are not, is so close to being psychotic that most of us would be paralysed with fear if we knew that, that is what we are. That is where we are currently at. We have to get a reply to our cries in the air. 

Back to the woman in the ALDI car-park.

       'I haven't spoken to my grand-children for six months!' she wailed. I inwardly shrugged, 'And?'

This woman, I thought, can remember when we didn't see relatives for years at a time, yet she is emotionally wiped out when real conversation is denied us. I couldn't help thinking, 'Welcome to my world,' when people bemoaned their isolation. 'What!' 'What is wrong with you?' 'What?' 'How needy are you?' At the time, I thought that this woman's grandchildren would probably be relieved that she is absent. I imagined that they would groan when they were called to the phone to face-time Gran. But they wouldn't have been, unless they were previously bribed into liking Gran with sweet treats, or money. The fact is, they were probably brought up to misuse communication devices.

I have a low qualification in Business Administration. One of the things that was taught is what form of communication is appropriate when and why. Phone someone in an emergency. Text someone a burst of information, such as an address, or meeting time. Texts are notes for someone else to read. They are not chatting messages. Email someone with a report or draft contract. Emails are not, definitely not, for chatting. Providing a link in one of these to another form of communication is just plain nonsense. Mixing up communication platforms requires the recipient to switch their attention. It demands something of the recipient that is outside of the form of communication. 

Try this; I got an email containing an app link to arrange a telephone call. Just phone me! You have my number! leave a voice-mail message! Q-U-I-C-K-E-R! Why over-complicate a conversation? Even though I have a SmartPhone, I won't ever be using it for emails or accessing the internet. Why not? Because emails should not be text messages. Emails are opened on computers so links to websites can be included. To presume that anyone is foolish enough to open an app using a computer must mean that Covid fried their brain. 'Use any means to communicate! Break convention! Ignore cyber threats!' The conspiracy theorists must be peeing their pants laughing at this madness. Invent a disease to make people use digital communication with a desperation that causes them to be careless about cyber-security and maintaining security of their personal details. Make them show their faces on phones with service contracts so we can use facial recognition in shops and at airports. Dean Koontz would love this time. We all know of '1984' by George Orwell. Koontz wrote, 'Night Chills' in 1976. (Published in Gt. Britain in 1977 by W.H. Allen & Co. PLC) 

It is not without some dark bemusement that I read about people having their mobile phones stolen right out of their hands. If you have £200 would you walk around holding it right in front of your face?

       'The police won't do anything!'

Why should they? If millions of people decided to walk into brick walls and then phoned for an ambulance, the emergency-call-handlers would be compelled to ask? 'Did you deliberately close your eyes while walking towards a brick wall?' They would look at each other in their office and roll their eyeballs. 'Covid! Another person affected by Covid!'

If someone is instrumental in my immediate future and offers me a chance to 'chat', I have to do it because I am certain that they are ill and will be negatively affected by my puzzlement as to why they want to 'chat'. If they are instrumental in my immediate future, I have to make sure they don't dislike me for blanking their need; because I have to pass through a period that allows me to later distance myself from their confusion. Yes, I am being harsh. I recognise that people have the same universal need, but to satiate it, I have to become an addict, like them, to 'chatting' to thin air or a video display unit (alpha-numeric characters or digital images - it's all the same to me). Of course, this offer of a 'chat' may come from someone who thinks I need to inanely chat.

But I know what most people really want. They want to build a rapport. What I don't understand is why I have to do something to make them feel more comfortable. Personally, I don't need to set up a procedure to build a temporary rapport with someone, because I don't use people and I respect people. Whenever someone needs to build a rapport with me, I am forced to lie to them to make them go away and leave me in peace. 'Yes! Yes! We are getting on fine! There is no need to worry!'  I don't want anything to do with someone that is so insecure as that, without them also knowing they are mentally unwell. Generally, it is professionals that need to know they are doing their jobs right. If they don't know, I suggest they are in the wrong job.

I ran a very successful business a while ago. One learns to separate one's personal life from business. Today though, UK businesses have taken the stupid Americanism of personalising everything. In business and marketing, this is the after-sales service. 'You bought.....Do you like it?' or 'You are important to us, so we will pretend to show that, by making sure we don't have to waste time satisfying our obligations to our duty.' They do this using a universal means. Texts and emails. I think, 'Just sell it to me, or deliver it and I never need to know you even exist.' No, instead, why don't you just waste my time with inane conversation? But in reality they are hoping that their mediocre attitude and incompetence will not be noticed. It is not excellent. Why would it be? All they have to do now is sweet talk people who want to feel valued and validated for being fooled.

I know what cognitive dissonance is. I know why people feel it. How about businesses just doing what they are supposed to do and adhering to a good code of practice so customers do not expect more than is actually available?

I had a valid complaint about O2 services (UK telephone service provider). Their policy is, if the customer asks to speak to a manager, don't quibble, escalate the conversation or complaint. O2 doesn't do that. They have inadequately trained staff trying to sell more services like upgrades or something similarly ridiculous. Why would anyone upgrade? I just get what I need to satisfy everyone else, and then I stick to it. That wasn't true, but it is now; it has to be this way.

I bought some operating systems a while back to avoid MS Windows continual upgrading. The reason for doing this is because I recognised that eventually hackers would find a way in, that I will not be able to detect. In the past, whenever I detected strange software on my computers I simply formatted the hard drives and loaded an operating system from a DVD. The data on a DVD does not change. This means I can run the same operating system on two identical computers and only allow one to access the internet. Any changes in performance is detectable and directly attributable to downloaded updates. Now we have A.I. as a standard feature in our lives. It is even in used for searching the internet. I don't want assistance that favours what everyone else wants. However, at last, I have found an operating system that was created before Unlimited Data plans were a thing. It currently recognises that it uses a 'metered' internet connection, so it has paused ALL updates until it detects an unmetered internet connection. So, it will not download any updates, and most importantly, any that use A.I. to assist me by scanning my internet and computer use, and getting to know me. No updates make it harder for hackers to use Trojan Horses.

Me, measured in conversation; I get it now. 

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   Mental Health

[ 2 Minute read ]

World Mental Health Day

Friday 10th October 2025

Samaritans phone 116 123 anytime 24 hour service 7 days per week for someone who listens

It is World Mental Health Day on Friday 10th October 2025. Make no mistake about it, I have mental health issues on a daily basis. For example: I fetched half a bucket of acorns for the local squirrels to save so they can eat on Christmas Dinner, New Year Day, Valentine's Day, and Saint Patrick's Day and the stupid thieves are too respectful to take them. Only I would have honest squirrels in my garden! How frustrating when things don't go to plan, eh?

I have re-purposed one of my websites to be able to accept anonymous comments that can be thousands of words long. I want to provide a space for people to let loose their feelings or explain their condition. 

Rant all you like, no-one will know your name because even though you need to include a name, you can make one up.

As an example of how I have opened myself up to honesty and taken some responsibility for my behaviour I have written about my failings in my posts. I have posted two pseudo-interviews with myself. The statements I make are true at the times of original writing - the questions I ask myself and my responses are more reflective in the present time. You can read those testimonies by searching for 'martin cadwell interview'. Or if you are logged in and on my OU Blog space you can click the tag 'interview'. Or click this link: INTERVIEW which is a link to two of my posts on the OU Blog site https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?user=852553&tag=interview

Share your story on hegemo.co.uk (my website) as comments in the 'Contact Us' form. I will read them and post them as blog posts under the assumed name on hegemo.co.uk or within my own blog space in the subdomain martincadwellblog.hegemo.co.uk. No-one will be able to comment on any posts or message (except me of course). 

I have no mental health training and will not and cannot advise on any matter beyond directions on where to seek appropriate help on an individual basis. However, I may contribute in an open and general way with my ideas on how I see things might be different but as I say NOT on an individual basis.

I found that interviewing myself gave me power over something that takes me hostage and leaves me weakened. If I recognise how frustration affects me (honestly affects me) I can redirect my energy.

My kitchen is too small; I hate electric cookers; My neighbour is weird; My knee hurts and the doctors think I am unfit; I think I am unfit and feel put upon by my own laziness; Why do people keep complaining all the time? 

Everybody has some kind of gripe.

hegemo.co.uk is a non-profit website solely for expressing opinion. No racism; no political angle and definitely no religious preaching. However, feel free to moan about anything.

Suggestions on how we can all live better lives are welcome.

Comment anonymously on the the 'Contact Us' form on hegemo.co.uk

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[ 4 Minute read ]

Claim the Bike!

I had the most embarrassing fun in my village shop today. I went there to buy something specific but on the way I stopped to collect some quince (or quinces) - two units of quince anyway. I have never seen a quince before and was quite puzzled what to do with them. This year, many people are sharing their surplus fruit. I would be pleased if my 'good neighbour' policy has enhanced the desire to share, from how it used to be in my village. 

Realistically, it could only be a better attitude in my road that the residents take with them to other roads. Who knows what futures we change by being friendly?

I get on pretty well with the local shop keeper. Well, at least he doesn't watch me on his CCTV monitor....I think. I went into his shop and then couldn't remember why I was there, so I went back out. Outside, I noticed a woman go to the bin where the really, really out of date stuff gets, well, binned. I couldn't see what she was doing so I just waited for her to come back out. When she did. I told her where the shopkeeper puts his free out of date stuff in the shop. She didn't want that; but you never know.

She was after a water-butt and a couple of storage boxes that the shopkeeper had dumped. She had gotten permission from the shopkeeper to take them. There was also a cranky bicycle, sullenly slumped in the corner. I wanted that. 

After a long and drawn out conversation with the woman on how to pronounce 'tat'; she had said 'tuurt'. Do you mean 'tut', I asked. She meant, 'tat'. Strangely, she did not have a northern England or Birmingham accent. Glo'll (Glottal) stops and all, I placed her as coming from South London and Sussex. She said she is local. Anyway, she was keen on cornering the shopkeeper and bending him to the idea of letting me take the bike. I knew that I could just ask him and he would say yes, or no. No amount of negotiation or wheedling would change his mind. I quickly escaped her, went into the shop and asked for it. He demurred a bit. I found out why later. The 'Tat Gatherer' woman followed me into the shop and brow-beated him for probably five minutes.

       'It's falling apart!' she claimed. 'You don't need it!' and other pushes, and she never asked an open question.

       'If I give it to you, are you going to give it to him?' he asked, meaning me.

       'Yes! Yes! Him!'

       'You can have it then.'

I have to hand it to him, he entertained all of the woman's strident claims. I couldn't get a word in edgeways, except, 'We don't need to do this.' and 'He doesn't need to hear it!' and finally, 'I'll talk to you in a bit,' before I went to find a jar of Marmite. The woman followed me apologising if she had interfered. I told her not. Interfering wasn't what she had done; She had displaced me. I assured her that everything was fine, so she left, but not before trying to make me put the bike in her open-top car and take me and it to my home. I wasn't sure if she liked me or was just bent on ironing out her stress, somehow. Maybe, she was familiar with the lyrics in The Eurythmics, 'Love is a Stranger' song. (Love is a stranger in an open car. To tempt you in and drive you far away). I taught myself to dance to that when I was in love with a beautiful and exotic Russian woman. No, I wasn't going in this woman's open car, and I certainly wasn't going to show her where I live, even though I don't keep rabbits.

At the counter, the shopkeeper and I smiled at each other. I told him that I didn't need the bike but intended to repair it. I suggested he reconsider giving it to me when he said he was thinking of keeping it, but he added that it had been rusting in the same place for over a year. He said I should take it. The conversation was calm and respectful; just as it should be, and we both expect it to be so. I don't do manic persuasion, and he doesn't do spiteful or selfish refusal.

Half an hour at home with the bike and I had it ride-able, after I rejoined the chain and secured the wheels with spare wheel nuts. I will probably fix it up with spare parts after I have resprayed it, and give it to him as a gift, if he wants it. But it will be in a queue for about a year because I have others to mend, use for donor parts, and just move around my home, until I make a decision to do something more expensive than I can afford to do, with the worst of them. They need a lot of attention.

My local shop is so much fun.