I find it so hard to navigate and spell my words properly on my website I normally publish a page first and then edit it after the event (what a muppet). I have found designing and navigating the page so dam frustrating. I paid a friend to add some structure to my site he is a web designer and it is keeping it looking presentable for now. Just been linking a new Facebook page to this site.
Well as I last looked at the clock it was 03:34 so time for bed now.
Good night thank you for reading. See you later litigator or should that have been alligator? Who knows like I say spelling bad visual word journey good.
Thank you to the strangers on here that like and support what I try to do, I can’t ever explain how personal this all is but I feel this is my voice this is my time and if I do not speak a life might be lost and I am a greedy soul I want to help as many as I can. The internet has been like an echo chamber for me where I can scream and shout to people and for my thoughts and views to light up like a righteous fire that burns like a brightness that this world has not seen for many a year. I feel like I’m burning with ideas and visions and desperately trying to get them off my chest at this difficult time for all.
I am so angry but happy at the same time that I have been given this choice in time to say my truths. I’m so angry that someone has not said what I am saying before I was born on this planet that makes me fume so much. But happy in that I am here to help consider me a second class option to the one you really wanted.
Right now I get a lot of solace comfort from the friends that I live, work rest and play with back up in the real world which I am presently along with about 75% of the population in lock down from. As well as the love from of my family. Most other people just don’t really know me and think me mad, stupid or close to death.
I really do think this planet is a slave to itself and a little light of positive awakening through my psychosis at a time of strife and destiny for the planet can only be a good thing. A beacon is now lit and some want to stand in the flames and feel the burn, other are afraid to look or pretend it is not there or just stick their head up their own arse instead of looking themselves in the mirror and standing by their own truths and others are afraid that I am a psycho monster.
I know instead of the hard-work that it is going to take to shape a world worth living for we could ask your God to get a magic wand out and start firing fire-bolt’s from his arse because that seems like the right-thing to do now.
Today as I held my phone in my hand I wanted to phone my brother and tell him what I was up to and that I wanted him to tell him to take care and that I loved him. I could also tell him what little battles I had won and what ones I hoped to take on tomorrow, my brother was much more selfless than me and for that I am in awe of still to this day. He would be so proud of me and loving too. If he could see how I was doing today with holding a job down, keeping a roof over my head, having good friends and having a future to look forward to. He has seen me stair into the abyss many a time when we grew up together and the more angry and expressive I became the funnier he would find me because he knew he had my back.
He got married to a women and they through the good grace of God have a child, that child was the most important being in this world to my brother and I hope he knows that one day. Sadly it did not work out between my brother and his wife and so they divorced resulting in one of the most painful experiences in my brothers short life.
My brother had a hotline to God, I shit you not. He could see spirits walking around in the material realm those that had died who possibly were unaware they were dead or liked to stay down here and play with us humies. My brother also told me of a time when he astroprojected his being to check up on someone he cared about wanted to see what they were up to, that scarred the crap out of me and although its not something I can do myself I knew that all these things he experienced were completely true for my brother was my brother and never lied to me.
In that token I fear I have most humiesat a disadvantage because even though I cannot and hope never to be able to do these magic tricks that my brother did I know that the fact that he could do them meant they were real and therefore I know there is a supernatural force out there I do not require, proof, faith or even dare I say hope.
Much hotter and more loyal catch than me
I hope my brother is now in heaven for he lived his life as a good man and always nurtured my soul, had my back and would do anything asked for by me. Alas due to his violent suicide I do not know if God will allow him into heaven. Although thanks to one of my Catholic uncles he had a mass held for my brother or had the Priest pray for my brother once he was dead I forget which now it was a few years ago and my memory is not good at the best of times.
I just tried to look up a Catholic prayer for the dead online for my brother and have read and found the one below.
God our Father, Your power brings us to birth, Your providence guides our lives, and by Your command we return to dust.
Lord, those who die still live in Your presence, their lives change but do not end. I pray in hope for my family, relatives and friends, and for all the dead known to You alone.
In company with Christ, Who died and now lives, may they rejoice in Your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away. Unite us together again in one family, to sing Your praise forever and ever.
Amen
Due to the nature and circumstances of his death the prayer does not give peace or comfort to me for I believe in my heart of hearts he should, could and would have still been here today should he have made a better choice and as I am such a persuasive person myself I believe I could have had a chance of saving his life. The people with him that night fought and battled and were bruised in there efforts to fight for his life. My weapons would have been words and tears to stop him in his moment of madness and there is a chance that I could have stopped his death.
So the conundrum is as they say in the Schrödinger’s cat hypothosis which is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, though the idea originated from Albert Einstein. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The determination of fate, predictability and predetermination.
Was he meant to die that night, could I have stopped him and is he now in heaven or hell?
He is still my inspiration to this day and I fear or look forward to how deep down the rabbit whole of life I can go as I honor his unfortunate departure to death until we meet again my only brother.
Just joined my first team meeting for Devon Communities Together we were all talking from work and went really well. I joined them by landline phone while they all plugged into zoom. A friend of mine has advised me not to use Zoom due to it’s hackabilty so I am just buzzing in from my landline phone to the meeting.
So good to talk to colleagues that know me as just a regular normal Joe to be ignored and sometimes listened to as they see fit. I have a meeting with our chief exec this afternoon about our communications network that we have built up to defend people from Corona19 and also from Corona19 disinformation the knowledge force-field we have implemented seems to be currently holding its own under the relentless attach of waives of negativity.
Have a tune to play for someone that I like that does not even know I exist. Ho hum, shit happens.
It’s all in the bloody eyes
Unrequited love and liking a wanna be celebrity is so funny in a really horrible dark and mysterious way!!
Burned trees are seen after a forest fire outside the settlement of Poliske located in the 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Photo: Reuters
Pavel Polityuk
April 15 2020 01:30 AM
A huge fire that tore through forests around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant has been put out after hundreds of emergency workers used planes and helicopters to douse the flames.
Environmental activists had said the fire, near the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986 and believed to have been started deliberately, posed a radiation risk.
Officials said they registered short-term rises in Caesium-137 particles in the Kiev area to the south of the plant, but radiation levels were within normal limits overall and did not require additional protection measures.
Helped by rain, emergency services prevented the fire from spreading to either the plant or military facilities in the area.
They will however need a few more days to fully extinguish it, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office stated.
Police have accused a 27-year-old local of deliberately starting the blaze, and Mr Zelensky’s office said officers had also arrested suspected arsonists near two points where the fire broke out.
The European Commission has set out a plan to move towards a ‘right to repair’ for electronics devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
More generally it wants to restrict single-use products, tackle “premature obsolescence” and ban the destruction of unsold durable goods — in order to make sustainable products the norm.
The proposals are part of a circular economy action plan that’s intended to deliver on a Commission pledge to transition the bloc to carbon neutrality by 2050.
By extending the lifespan of products, via measures which target design and production to encourage repair, reuse and recycling, the policy push aims to reduce resource use and shrink the environmental impact of buying and selling stuff.
The Commission also wants to arm EU consumers with reliable information about reparability and durability — to empower them to make greener product choices.
“Today, our economy is still mostly linear, with only 12% of secondary materials and resources being brought back into the economy,” said EVP Frans Timmermans in a statement. “Many products break down too easily, cannot be reused, repaired or recycled, or are made for single use only. There is a huge potential to be exploited both for businesses and consumers. With today’s plan we launch action to transform the way products are made and empower consumers to make sustainable choices for their own benefit and that of the environment.”
The Commission said electronics and ICT will be a priority area for implementing a right to repair, via planned expansion of the Ecodesign Directive — which currently sets energy efficiency standards for devices such as washing machines.
Its action plan proposes setting up a ‘Circular Electronics Initiative’ to promote longer product lifetimes through reusability and reparability as well as “upgradeability” of components and software to avoid premature obsolescence.
The Commission is also planning new regulatory measures on chargers for mobile phones and similar devices. While an EU-wide take back scheme to return or sell back old mobile phones, tablets and chargers is being considered.
Back in January the EU Parliament voted overwhelmingly for tougher action to reduce e-waste, calling for the Commission to come up with beefed up rules by this summer.
The Commission proposals also include a new regulatory framework for batteries and vehicles — including measures to improve the collection and recycling rates of batteries and ensure the recovery of valuable materials. Plus there’s a proposal to revise the rules on end-of-life vehicles to improve recycling efficiency and waste oil treatment.
It’s also planning measures to set targets to shrink the amount of packaging being produced, with the aim of making all packaging reusable or recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030.
Mandatory requirements on recycled content for plastics used in areas such as packaging, construction materials and vehicles is another proposal.
Other priority areas for promoting circularity and reducing high consumption rates include construction, textiles and food.
The Commission expects the circular economy to have net positive benefits in terms of GDP growth and jobs’ creation across the bloc — suggesting measures to boost sustainability will increase the EU’s GDP by an additional 0.5% by 2030 and create around 700,000 new jobs.
The backing of MEPs in the European Parliament and EU Member States will be necessary if the Commission proposals are to make it into pan-EU law.
Should they do so, Dutch social enterprise Fairphone shows a glimpse of what’s coming down the repairable pipe in future…
My newly designed logo it cost a prity penny too!!
I am really surprised by how expensive the digital economy is to cyber surf within, to say that you can sometimes earn money and see it disappear into thin air!!
Coronavirus lockdown makes for a bittersweet holiday season in BethlehemMonks attend an Orthodox Easter service at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City after the church was closed as a precaution against COVID-19, April 11, 2020. (Photo: Afif Amira/WAFA)
It’s been 40 days — though it feels much longer — since a state of emergency was declared in Palestine, and the first city in the West Bank was put under lockdown due to a coronavirus outbreak.
Since then, the number of confirmed cases has soared to 284 in Gaza and the West Bank, with an unexpected spike of 10 new confirmed cases on Tuesday.
Relative to the rest of the world, and neighboring Israel in particular, the number of cases in Palestine still seem exceptionally low. For Palestinians, however, who are painfully aware of their ill-equipped healthcare system, every new case presents a new threat.
With every passing week, Palestinians in Bethlehem, who have been under lockdown the longest, have faced new challenges.
The beginning of the outbreak saw the city’s bustling tourism industry come to a screeching halt, suddenly putting most of the city’s residents out of work.
As people struggled to adjust to a new normal, they were soon faced with the reality that the Israeli occupation would not be leaving them alone during the pandemic as soldiers raided local refugee camps in the city.
A few weeks in, just as the situation in the city seemed to be getting better, with little to no new cases reported, Palestinian laborers in Israel began flooding back into the West Bank, spreading the virus across the rest of the territory.
This week, Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, are being overwhelmed with mixed emotions of joy and sadness as the Easter holidays and beginning of Ramadan, times of celebration and togetherness, are being celebrated under quarantine.
While much of the world celebrated Easter this past Sunday, in accordance with the Catholic and Protestant churches, the majority of Palestinians will celebrate Easter this upcoming Sunday, following the Orthodox calendar.
Church bells still rang out in Jerusalem and Bethlehem this Sunday, but the churches themselves, save a few clergy members, remained empty. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was closed on Easter Sunday for the first time since the Black Death in 1349.
Things are expected to remain similarly quiet for Orthodox Easter next week, as usual processions through the holy streets of Jerusalem and Manger Square in Bethlehem have been cancelled for the masses, with some churches urging followers to tune into Easter services online.
The coming of Easter has been a bittersweet reminder for the people of Bethlehem of the reality that, while they celebrate in their homes, the hundreds of thousands of tourists that the city relies on during the holiday season are not coming this year.
After the coming Easter celebrations, in around 10 days, Muslims will begin observing the holy month of Ramadan.
Ramadan, especially in Palestine, in every sense of the month, is characterized by togetherness. People pray en masse together, eat meals together, and stay up into the late hours of the night sitting with family, friends, and neighbors.
Hundreds of mosques around Palestine, which have been closed since the state of emergency was declared, are expected to remain closed, and many families who are out of work are worried about how they will be able to put food on the table throughout the month,
At this time of year, businesses are open until late as they sell the newest and brightest decorations and lights for Ramadan, families are taking late night walks out in the city, while the streets waft with the sweet smells of ‘Qatayef’, a sweet folded pancake filled with cream or spiced walnuts, the official dessert of Ramadan.
For now, the streets are empty; empty of people, and empty of the nostalgic smells of street vendors frying Qatayef frying and incense wafting out from the churches.
As Palestinian Muslims and Christians’ hearts fill with joy over their shared celebrations, those feelings are inevitably overwhelmed with the sadness that this year, the coronavirus has, in a sense, robbed the holy city of Bethlehem of the festivities that make the city who she is.
‘My hope is that something comes out of this time of reflection, where we’re all being made to hold still for a while’ … Nick Offerman. Photograph: Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP
Devs is a slow, beautiful sci-fi drama thriller about a machine that can see backwards and forwards in time – back to Christ on the cross, forward to some looming unknowable crisis. It grapples with all the big questions. Is there such a thing as free will? Do we live in a multiverse? Could we all be part of a complex simulation?
Devs is masterminded by Alex Garland, famous for writing The Beach and directing Ex Machina. The series has inspired the sort of frantic online rabbit-holing not seen since the glory days of Lost. It’s the show Westworld wishes it was. Its reception in the US has shown what British viewers can expect when it begins on BBC Two this week: give it enough time and it will consume your every waking thought.
And yet the strangest thing about Devs is that the beating heart of this very serious show is Nick Offerman. Yes, Nick Offerman from comedy. Nick Offerman from woodwork. Nick Offerman from Parks and Recreation, the satirical US series about an Indiana town’s parks department in which he played Ron Swanson, the libertarian, anti-government boss striving to make his department as ineffective as possible.
I have a lot of experience of making people laugh. But also making them cringe, vomit and sob
Speaking from his home in LA, where he’s under lockdown, Offerman seems as surprised about this career turn as anyone. “Any farm boy like myself, that packed up and went off to theatre school, is chasing the dream of working with a person like Alex,” he says. “I was working at my woodwork shop when I got the call that he wanted to meet with me, and I teared up a little bit. In my world, it was not expected that someone like Alex would turn his gaze in my direction.”
Nevertheless, it’s perfect casting. Offerman plays Forest, a conspiratorial tech CEO so ravaged with grief for his dead daughter that he’s built a giant statue of her on the grounds of his campus. Amaya, his quantum computing company, is being investigated by engineer Lily Chan, who believes it is responsible for the disappearance of her boyfriend. Although Forest starts the series as an out-and-out villain (and it’s great to see Offerman use his physical heft for something other than excessive meat consumption), we gradually see a more humane side as we understand the rationale for his time-bending invention.
How does he feel about the central theme, the question of whether we live in a deterministic universe? “I love ruminating about the big existential questions,” he says. “But I was brought up in a family of salt-of-the-earth public servants, in the middle of Illinois, in the middle of America. I can wrap my head around the science of determinism, but in my everyday life, it’s the last thing I can think about because I’m usually in the middle of choosing the sandwich I’ll be having for lunch – and then the slightly larger, warmer sandwich I’ll be having for dinner.”
Big questions … Alison Pill and Nick Offerman in Devs. Photograph: Raymond Liu
It’s a very Offerman answer, rooted in both good-hearted Americana and food. Time and time again during our interview, he’ll return to these twin wells, bringing up the morals that were instilled in him by his family and comparing TV reviews to various types of fast food (“Who put gruyere in this cheeseburger? Are you insane? One star!”).
Offerman, 49, was born in the tiny village of Minooka to a mother who was a nurse and a father who taught social studies at high school. He’s one of four children and much of his growing up was done on a soybean farm, which is just the sort of quirky background detail that could belong to his most famous character. In fact, if you close your eyes, you feel like you could be talking to Ron Swanson. And this might be becoming a problem.
Although Parks and Recreation finished half a decade ago, people still have a tendency to see Offerman through the lens of Swanson. It’s understandable – the character incorporated many of Offerman’s traits: his flair for woodwork, his talent with a saxophone and his outward projection of gruff manliness. It’s a comparison that Offerman has played up, with books like Paddle Your Own Canoe and a standup tour called American Ham. But enough is enough. On his most recent comedy tour, Offerman took to singing a song entitled I’m Not Ron Swanson, which contained the lines: “He can eat a big-ass steak for every single meal / ’Cause his colon is fictitious, while mine is all too real.”
Was the song born of frustration? “It’s a little complicated,” he says, “because people want to conflate me with Ron Swanson’s politics. He’s a staunch libertarian, and I’m interested in everybody having healthcare or being paid a living wage. When I used to look at social media more closely, there would be angry fans saying, ‘I brought my shotgun to your comedy show and it turns out you’re a total snowflake.’”
Green shoots of genius … alongside Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation. Photograph: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
In truth, the two are poles apart. Offerman took two semesters of ballet. He toured Japan doing kabuki theatre. He repeatedly refers to himself as the black sheep of the family, who cries easily and believes Yoko Ono is a misunderstood genius. He’s thoughtful and articulate on gender and race, and very concerned with the issue of sustainable food.
There were other downsides to playing Swanson, too. “I couldn’t go to a restaurant. No matter what I ordered, they would put an inch-thick layer of bacon on my plate. I’d order a cheeseburger and they’d make me a one-pound cheeseburger. And I would give them a thumbs-up and hear my cardiologist screaming in my head.”
Yet there have always been many sides to Offerman. As well as the tours, the books (four in seven years), his parallel career running a woodshop in LA, and the intimate podcast he and his wife Megan Mullally host from their bed, Offerman has amassed a wildly varied filmography. There has been voice work in Ice Age and Lego movies, prestigious Oscar bait in the form of The Founder, and such heartfelt little indie films as 2018’s Hearts Beat Loud. Then there are TV appearances in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Will & Grace and Fargo.
“I come from theatre,” he says, referring to Defiant Theater, the experimental Chicago company he co-founded in the early 1990s, winning rave reviews for productions that included everything from Shakespeare to Stephen King. “When you’re a street theatre actor, that means you try to perform in a myriad of genres. Whatever’s on that season. So you might do a Sam Shepard play, then maybe a musical. I have a lot of experience on stage of making people laugh certainly – but also making people cringe, vomit and sob.”
Yet Devs feels like his greatest leap so far. It’s a tremendous performance that sees Offerman shuttling between menace, vulnerability, goofiness and outright terror. Perhaps most impressive is the way that, as of a character who can see the future and therefore can never be surprised, he’s able to give such a relatable human performance. Given its themes, the show is bound to alienate as many people as it beguiles – something Offerman seems fully aware of.
“It’s like a great novel,” he says. “With a lot of people you can say, ‘Oh, you should read this Murakami book.’ And they’ll say, ‘Are you insane? What is this Windup Bird Chronicle? This is madness.’ But then there will be 15% of people that say, ‘Oh my god, that was the best book I’ve ever read.’ There is a quote I wear on my sleeve that goes, ‘If you’re not offending 33% of your audience, then it’s not art.’”
Beguiling … Offerman (right) with Karl Glusman in Devs. Photograph: Raymond Liu/BBC/FX Networks
This does not seem like a particularly optimal time to be promoting a TV series, with the world gripped by coronavirus. Does it feel strange? “Well, it does,” he says. “I mean, everything is kind of strange. For those of us whose work involves outputting any sort of content to an audience, everything has to be couched with sensitivity to the tragedy unfolding all around us.
“Fortunately, the greater percentage of us will get through this. A lot of people are suffering and perishing at the hands of the deadly virus. But there are exponentially more people suffering and dying because of the incredible bed-shitting that our administration has performed. The failure – the face-plant of our government in the face of this pandemic – has been unbelievably embarrassing and shameful. And continues to be so. I mean, that sad clown just continues to dance and bleat as though the stock market will somehow save him from the incredibly gory butcher’s bill he is being presented with.”
He takes a breath. “But to answer your question, I’m glad – because I think our show is just magnificent.”
Offerman is a reassuring man to talk to in a crisis. There’s a lot of solace to be had in his mixture of political fury and good-natured idealism. “As an eternal optimist,” he says, “my hope is that something might come out of this time of reflection, where we’re all being made to hold still for a while. Perhaps when it’s over, we will walk outside and look at a tree, or reacquaint ourselves with squirrels and birds in our neighbourhood, and say, ‘Oh, there is beauty, there is worth, there is incredible value to the world and to life. And it doesn’t come through my phone, it doesn’t come through consumerism, it doesn’t come from capitalism.’”
Another deep breath. “I had the good fortune of growing up in a frugal and loving family, so I understood that we can have a beautiful and rewarding life without having three Porsches in the garage. Having three Porsches is not actually that great, because you have to pay to maintain three Porsches. But if you instead get together with your family and build a canoe or a rowboat, you only need one of those. And you can have fun all year.”
What a total snowflake.
Devs starts on BBC Two at 9pm on Wednesday 15 April.
I have left a lot of groups recently and found it a really positive step for mental well-being and wholeness. Too many pointless untruths being posted by wankers against the government and there fellow men. I dug too deep and have been a witness to some really dark shit over the last week and taken my eyes to places I am not prepared to go back too. Whilst being forced to have my views nailed to a cross or pay money to support some shit or other. If I could help those in need of help and tell those that are the problem to royally go fuck themselves I would. But as for tempting fate, doubting Thomas or even just plane old bad ass teenage ninja turtles out there all will get there recon-pence but I ain’t that dude to do it. For those in a hurrah to play Mr big or David versus Goliath I would say hopefully you will discover what shit went down once your dead and in the meantime that is not an endorsement.
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