Tag: Life

Karaoke Nights: Finding Connection Through Music

Clocks went back by an hour over the weekend so its now gone 10pm instead off 11pm on Monday night. It feels more like a Sunday night as I had the day off today. I went out to a city called Plymouth to a bar called Walkabout to sing Karaoke with some friends on Sunday. I hope we all had a good night and got up and sang our little hearts out.

Some of my favourite songs that I sing relate to a connection between my head and heart in the songs concerning such unspoken matters such as unrequited love, past lovers no longer with us and love lost as well as other other things that are also important to me such as the loss of my father and brother or what will happen to us all on this planet in the future (all good deep and meaningful issues on my mind of coure).

I got to sing three songs last night – the first was ‘the Blowers Daughter’ by Damien Rice. The next song I sung I was ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting and finally I sang a song by the killers called ‘All the things I have done’. I bit of drunken crowd participation took place too which was aq lot of fun and also late night out as the bar shut about 1:30am and I got home just after 2:30am so lucky to have the day off really as  a means of recovering from such a late night.

It’s a big venue with a big stage but does not really get that full so feels quite intimate to sing there and there are lots of other really good singers that also get up and give it their best. Since lock down back at the beginning of the 2020’s I have met so many good and new friends due to singing at Karaoke bars and it really has brought so many great opportunities too and a new lease of life for me.

I really do enjoy meeting new people and getting to know who they are and what makes them tick. I don’t know if this is a natural curious state of mind or brought on even more due to having lost people through them passing away and so searching for ways to meet other new and lovely people as a means to try and compensate for those that have been lost. This will be my first Christmas without my Dad which is strange and even though it’s still nearly 2 months away it is nonetheless a though on my mind.     

The Blower’s Daughter · Damien Rice

Scientists have confirmed that Schizophrenia “voices” are the brain mishearing its own thoughts

In late October 2025, researchers from UNSW Sydney published a study providing the strongest evidence yet for the long-held theory that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia result from the brain misinterpreting its own inner speech. Using brainwave analysis, the study showed that the brains of people experiencing hallucinations reacted to their own internal monologue as if it were an external voice. 

How the brain typically processes inner speech

In a healthy brain, a mechanism called “corollary discharge” helps to distinguish internal thoughts from external sounds. 

  • When a person thinks to themselves, a corollary discharge signal is sent to the auditory cortex to quiet the “inner voice”.
  • This signal informs the brain that the thought is self-generated, so the auditory cortex does not react to it as an outside sound. 

What happens in a schizophrenic brain

The recent EEG study revealed how this process breaks down in people with schizophrenia who hear voices. 

  • In those experiencing hallucinations, the normal suppression of the auditory cortex does not occur during inner speech.
  • Instead, the brain reacts more strongly to the person’s own internal voice, similar to how it would react to someone else speaking.
  • This confusion leads the brain to perceive internal thoughts as external voices, which can feel incredibly real and intrusive. 

Implications of the discovery

  • A new biomarker: The brainwave measurement used in the study has the potential to serve as a biomarker for the development of psychosis, enabling earlier detection and intervention.
  • Improved treatment: Understanding the biological basis of these hallucinations is a critical step toward developing more effective and targeted treatments beyond traditional talk therapy.
  • Reduced stigma: The findings emphasize that auditory hallucinations are not imagined or an indication of “losing touch with reality.” Instead, they are a result of complex changes in how the brain processes and attributes thoughts. 

The Risks of Buying on Facebook: My Experience

For those of us that use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family through it, you might have also noticed that there are a lot of adverts these days appearing on your screen on Facebook, advertised all sorts of things fronted by people and business that have set up pages to pay Facebook to advertise their products on.

I purchased 2 t-shirt’s from Facebook from a website that was advertising its items from a USA website called Soulisfree and the T-shirts arrived and fit as the correct size as sold and I really liked them, one was a black t-shirt with a full sun equinox taking place on the front of the T-shirt and the other as pictured below was called ‘Wandering into the digital world”. The image was one that looked like Alice in Wonderland lifting up a curtain to reveal the code from the matrix in her reality. I thought both T-shirts were cool and looked great. I was so pleased when they both safely arrived with me back in September.

Alice in the matrix

The buying of the T-shirts gave me a false sense of security that buying on Facebook might actually be ok and could have improved since the bad old days of items turning up wrongly sized or misadvertised. So back in September I started getting a lot of adverts promoting advent calendars and one that caught my eye was entitled ‘The Lord of the Rings Christmas Advent Calendar – Collector’s Edition’. I have never bought an advent calendar for myself, don’t own a Christmas tree or decorations but thought it might be a nice idea to buy the calendar and possibly even use the advent calendar items as Christmas decorations and even get a Christmas Tree.

I thought the little figures looked great and what could go wrong trying to buy them on Facebook too, Facebook is a big company with a multimillion pound slick business operation what on earth could go wrong. so I purchased the calendar from a chinese company advertising its shop on Facebook.

Well that was the middle of September when I tried to buy the above item and I don’t think anything is on its way. I had a confirmation of purchase and confirmation of postage sent to me but everything else has gone wrong. The (none Facebook, website crashes when I try to click on it to get an update on my order or ask them when it might arrive). The company has also stopped advertising the calendar on Facebook although they still have some other active calendar adverts on Facebook.

I have tried contacting Facebook asking the to remove the advertising page from their site and shut down the businesses advertising pages on Facebook to stop more people giving this business money for goods that do not arrive. It took me about 4-5 hours to work out how to make a complaint on Facebook and I did this with the help of google search, but its very difficult to complain about past adverts, unless you know what your doing on Facebook.

It’s almost deliberately difficult so that people just don’t bother reporting past fraudulent sites and pages on Facebook which is a huge con by the companies and criminal entities pretended to sell stuff through Facebook shopping windows. Facebook are not stupid and incompetent they are complicit with the the criminal activity taking place through their pages.

Fortunately for me I purchased the imaginary calendar through a PayPal payment and so PayPal have already refunded my purchase and so I am not out of pocket. But for those that end up handing their account details directly to criminal entities operating on Facebook I do feel sorry for those potentially mis sold customers as you just don’t know what they will do with those account details once they have them. I also don’t know why Facebook make it so easy for people to be ripped off through their site, very poor customer practises which they must profit from considerably.

Trump is waging a personal war on our world and us

In real-time with continued unquenchable thirst to manipulation freedoms and thoughts by working to silencing the press that disagree with him or shut down comedians that make fun of him.

Corporation America, the once big belly of the beast of free speech and freedom, now live in fear of Trump and that’s exactly how he wants it and that’s the game he continues to play and he is winning said game. Corporations bend the knee to Trump and these are profound changes to organisations being driven by what makes Donald Trump happy and what makes him laugh and smile. They now look to do what they have to do to make him leave them alone or so to entertain him like a Roman Emperor but instead of sitting at the coliseum standing up and encouraging the massed crowds to be baying for the blood of his enemies he instead takes to social media platforms where he does the same their instead.

Facts and freedom of speech and even a sense of humour are now obstacles to pleasing him. Trump is a fighter and he takes no prisoners and is never happier than when in conflict with others. No good will come from such a war hungry spirit.

But while this war hungry spirit also just so happens to be the President of the USA, manipulating all the powers of the oval office to his will and ensuring his role as commander in chief of America is done purely to suit him, so that he is at war with anyone that might disagree with him or find what he does funny at his expense and call him out or show signs of not lapping up his distortions of truth and reality or all out lies and frankly his bullshit, well right now if your not pro Trump it seems that anything goes in taking you down or denying you oxygen in main stream media channels. The support of the Donald Trump administration really is the only ticket in town that Trump wants to be shown and he’s flexing his political muscles to make this happen right now.

Comedians in western democracies have often entertained us and enlightened us on the dark side of power and media manipulation. Comedians have long used humour to hold political and media figures accountable, exposing hypocrisy and misuse of power through satire, parody, and blunt commentary. By questioning authority and deconstructing official narratives, they offer a powerful counter-narrative to the political status quo.  

Deconstructing the illusion of power

  • Holding leaders accountable: Political comedy makes even the most untouchable or authoritarian leaders appear fallible and human, bringing their power back down to earth. By mocking perceived weaknesses or moral failings, comedians can diminish the aura of infallibility that some leaders try to cultivate.
  • Forcing uncomfortable truths: In oppressive regimes, satire can serve as a release valve and a form of resistance, allowing citizens to share grievances about inefficiency or injustice. Comedians may frame their jabs as a joke, giving them cover while still managing to “sting our consciousness” and highlight moral failures.
  • Targeting hypocrisy: Many comedians specialize in revealing the gap between a politician’s public image and their private actions. By zeroing in on inconsistencies and absurdities, they expose the performance of politics and the self-serving nature of some political agendas. 

Exposing media manipulation

  • Calling out media bias: Comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have long parodied the format of news and punditry shows, drawing attention to how bias shapes the media landscape. This form of parody allows them to critique biased reporting and manipulative framing from within the media’s own structure.
  • Dissecting algorithmic influence: More recently, comedians have turned their attention to the digital landscape. Jon Stewart, for example, has dissected how social media algorithms are designed to incentivize extreme engagement, manipulate users, and promote polarized and misleading content for profit.
  • Focusing on underreported stories: Programs like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver dedicate long segments to covering complex issues that mainstream outlets often ignore or simplify. By using a mix of thorough research and comedy, they shed light on the systemic failures and manipulative practices behind issues like predatory lending, data mining, and problematic local media coverage. 

Famous comedians and their methods

  • The Daily Show (Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah): Famously used a fake news format to deliver hard-hitting political commentary. The show’s “moment of Zen” provided a memorable critique of media absurdity, while field reports and interviews challenged political figures and conventional wisdom.
  • The Colbert Report (Stephen Colbert): Featured Colbert in a satirical persona of a right-wing pundit, mimicking figures like Bill O’Reilly. By using hyperbole to argue from this fabricated, self-important position, Colbert exposed the flaws and hypocrisy of personality-driven political commentary.
  • Last Week Tonight (John Oliver): Combines in-depth investigative reporting with comedic segments. The show often takes on complex policy issues, holding corporations and political systems accountable with deep dives that go far beyond typical news coverage.

ABC suspends talk show host Jimmy Kimmel indefinitely over remarks about right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk’s killing, suddenly the denial of a comedian to express his sense of humour in a joke and have freedom of speech is not making anyone laugh, except perhaps Trump and his supporters who have been calling for the cancelation of his critics for quite some time now.

I expect in Trumps eyes if you silence all mainstream criticism of him he can do no wrong and be seen to tell no lies.

Fascism has never been slain it has only been sleeping

Modern fascism, is a post-WWII far-right, ultranationalist ideology that adapts classic fascist characteristics like authoritarianism, a cult of the leader, and aggressive nationalism to modern contexts, incorporating contemporary tools such as social media and identity politics to promote xenophobia, racial nationalism, and often a perception of national decline. While rejecting the overt totalitarianism of historical fascism, neo-fascism shares a fundamental distrust of democracy, liberalism, and pluralism, aiming to create a unified, ethnically homogenous nation-state through populism and the suppression of opposition. 

How Far Is It From Here to Nuremberg? By David Rovics

Key Characteristics of Modern Fascism (Neo-Fascism)

  • Populist Ultranationalism:A central focus on a fervent, exclusionary form of nationalism that emphasizes the nation’s identity and perceived victimhood, often tied to ethnic or racial superiority. 
  • Authoritarianism:Support for a strong, centralized government headed by a cult-like leader who claims infallibility and suppresses dissent. 
  • Identity Politics:The use of immigration, ethnicity, race, and gender to create an “us vs. them” narrative, identifying scapegoats for societal problems. 
  • Modern Tools:The use of new technologies like social media and AI to spread propaganda, organize, and recruit members. 
  • Nativism and Xenophobia:Strong opposition to immigration, globalization, and multiculturalism, fostering a belief that these elements threaten national culture and identity. 
  • Opposition to Democracy:A rejection of liberalism, democracy, pluralism, and social democracy, seeing them as weak or divisive. 
  • Disdain for Human Rights:A focus on national “purity” and a willingness to disregard or suppress human rights for the perceived good of the nation

When we start to dehumanise an individual we risk dehumanising everyone and to what end that could lead is as yet unclear. Sadly the politics of hate and difference continue to grow heavy on my mind. I have a number of social media accounts that I sit and watch when wanting to unwind and unplug and this weekend for the first time ever, there were a lot of pro English, White pride and hate to others content seeping onto the pages that I scroll through, being promoted on social media posts underlined with the view I have my right to hate and not care what you thing. Ignorance is their weapon of mass media manipulation.

The bullshit is easy to spread across fields of social media accounts and watch the seeds of hate grow across across the pages which they then harvested likes and further their spread of opinions of ignorance and hate. I believe with all my heart there is more that unites humanity than divides it but that seems a tough sell at present.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)#:~:text=Race%20is%20a%20categorization%20of,characterized%20by%20close%20kinship%20relations.

On Wikipedia in relation to ‘Race (Human) stated the following:- Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning. The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.

What if 24 hour satellite television news had existed in 1945?

When Hitler invaded Poland and started World War 2 would the news stations have been beaming around the world his justification for going to war and would we have been relying on journalists cleared by or operating within the rules of what the Nazis deemed as appropriate to broadcast to ‘inform’ us of what is going on in Germany and the countries being conquered by the Nazi regime. What a question to consider you might say.

But it really does feel in Russia, Israel and to some extent news from the White House in the USA, it is very much in a one directional form of information presentation. Which we are handed on a plate and if unpalatable then tough luck sucker this is the perspective we are telling you is truth today.

For example Russia entered a righteous war in Ukraine and did not invade a sovereign state for its strategic advancement. You think the fascists in Russia are bad you should watch the videos about the fascists in Ukraine their much much worse than the Russian ones or so the propaganda machine journalists of the Russian state would have people believe as some conspiracist lap this up as so called food for thought.

In Gazza there is an outright genocide through starvation and bombing which our satellite television channels keep on tuning into Israel governments propaganda machine very much like if during World War 2 a Nazi spokesperson explaining live on TV the importance of workcamps to set people free and house jews within them and completely denying the gas chambers as malicious gossip.

In the USA millions of dollars of oversee life saving food, aid and healthcare programmes have been stopped overnight which will lead to the death of citizens across the globe whilst ICE’s US deportation teams kick people out of the country or detain them within the country with out due legal process if not costing lives certainly severally impacting on lives and the big lie reported live on satellite TV by the US governments team is that illegal immigrants are all rapists, murders and drug dealers and therefore need to go.

Its never been easier to report bullshit as fact and facts as bullshit on the TV. Truth is still truth though and facts are still facts, it just so happens I seem to spend more time these days trying to tune out the lies and bullshit than I do tune into fact and truths.

I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! Speech from Network (1976)

Trying to avoid Bitdefender’s antivirus autorenewal trap

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – oops no that’s the wrong time, though the sun is shinning and the outdoors is warm and not to hot but its definitely not THAT time of the year.

Instead it’s antivirus renewal time for my PC or at least I am getting a lot of emails from Bitdefender telling me to renew my antivirus or sit back and let them automatically take out of my bank in September £80 (HOW MUCH).

Which to my mind is far to expensive and so I have decided that whatever I do I will not be automatically renewing it with them. Normally I purchase my antivirus software on another site on the internet more often than not on Amazon. It cost me £30 last year so I am in no hurray whatsoever to have exactly the same cover for £80 instead!

I have already found a replacement package of Bitdefender antivirus for 12 months for just £20 which I will be using for the next 12 months. But I was annoyed and disappointed by the fact they have set up an autorenewal for £80 for me which I am finding very difficult to cancel.

So I have been following the online instructions on how to cancel the autorenewal and when I get to the correct page on their software the cancelation button is just off screen making it impossible to cancel both on my pc and phone, very convenient for Bitdefender and a royal pain in the behind for me.

I have contacted there customer services team asking them to cancel my rolling subscription and they just emailed me back offering more ways of spending lots of money with them and not cancelling my autorenewal. So I have emailed them again asking politely for them to cancel the dam autorenewal.

I am still waiting for a response from Bogdan C. a Bitdefender Retention & Loyalty Specialist to get back to me on this matter.

Pink Floyd – Money

Uncomfortable views in the news promoted as normal and yet anything but!

Just watching the news on television tonight and this week it seems it is not currently trying to inform me, but to indoctrinate me. I’m no believer in the view that the news is all lies, but what it certainly is is opinionated and what it does have is an agenda.

Top headline tonight on the TV is about criminal smuggling gangs getting immigrants to the UK. There is a lot of hate stirred up by illegal immigration stories. One person in my workplace even turned around last week and openly said that he thought that illegal immigrants coming over in boats should be shot as they approach our shores that would soon stop them.

I was not expecting such a violent response from a person that I worked with about such an issue as immigration. There was no way of telling if he believed his view or had a dark sense of humour but where ever he was coming from he felt emboldened enough to say it, it kind of sums up an undercurrent of racism and hatred to others that seems to be amplified across the media and then teaches people to be emboldened in their hatred of others.

You won’t get a documentary on a main screen television showing reporting on the horrors of war, famine and poverty that humans are desperately trying to escape and why they flee to wealthy countries, such a report might be controversial or deemed inappropriate propaganda promoting the people were being taught to hate and fear.   

Smash the gangs and stop the boats are both terms used by former heads of government of the UK when promoting their policies against immigrants again adding fuel to the fire of fear, hatred and paranoia of strangers. I have always thought that the left of society were more eloquent, critical and show amusing senses of humour ridiculing of the establishment and those in power who abuse the power that they have.

But it is one think to laugh at those in power, its completely different realisation that anyone in power is simply being voted in because the many support their potentially hateful and right-wing view points. People don’t like to elect kind and informed and fair minded individuals the majority appear to enjoy electing a bunch of ?!?!( I want to use a swear word hear but in my own head can’t justify it right now). Let’s just say more often than not self serving millionaires aimed at defending their own power and interests or those that will do that job for said millionaires for them.

One of the greatest mistakes and also predictable errors by our present Labour government is that they will not tax the rich and powerful in a way that is needed by society in order to strengthen our social services and pay for what we need to provide a functioning western democratic society.

The Labour government has instead argued for the removal of benefits for the disabled and removal or reduction of money to help pensioners through the winter from fuel poverty and also arguably destroy the ability of farmers to pass down the assets of a farm from one generation to the next. Oh and not forgetting stopping illegal immigration from war torn countries and poverty from entering the UK.

I’m not a member of the Labour party and also did not vote for them in the last election but they are a better devil than the Conservative party or Remain. It’s likely Remain could make it in to power one day or even at the next election and if I thought our present Labour government has tones of right wing paranoia and policies then I have not seen anything if Remain are elected in. It seems the hope and dreams I grew up with in the 1990’s as a teenager that the planet was on the dawn of a new dawn of fairness and being saved from itself has been reversed and suppressed by an establishment whose agenda and direction of travel I simply do not understand or respect and where it will all end nobody quite knows. In hindsight is this the era of Trumpism on a global scale and we are not being told the dark side of what happens when we do his bidding, just being taught the dark side of why we must do his bidding?

James – All the colours of you

Reflecting on My Birthday: A Year of Change

I did not want to do a lot on my birthday this year as I was minded to think of having lost my Dad at the beginning of the year. Normally on my birthday over the last few years I would go out for a meal with friends and last year went to a bar called the White Hart.

Me stuck in the middle with some great guys that I went out with for my birthday in 2024.

I instead went out on Friday 11th July this year to a local bar where we sing Karaoke. I got up and sung We are Young by Fun and a friend kindly recorded me singing but I sound very loud and drunk and so will not post it on here just yet.

Yesterday I went out for a meal with my mum at a pub called the Fisherman’s Cot. We got some rare photos of me and mum too then also.

So I have the week off now and will just relax and take it easy, fortunately its no longer as hot as it was last week so just chilling and recharging my batteries.


Our capitalist designed system is not set to act in our interest! 

Capitalism is an economic system where private individuals or businesses own capital goods like factories and resources, rather than the government or state. The goal is to produce goods and services and generate profit, with supply and demand playing a key role in determining prices and resource allocation. 

But in our global system, capitalism enables the wealthy and powerful to not just own business and means of production but ownership and direction of our governments, public perceptions of reality through the media and a persuasive overarching state of opinion on what should be considered successful, truthful and normal over what is considered a failed system, abnormal and even a lie. 

We operate and exist in extremely complicated economic global structures which dependent on where you look at it from can look extremely pleasing e.g. for those with wealth and power and control its a system within which they see considerable benefit for themselves but to those that live in areas of the world that are exploited such as taking away ecological resource being harvested and irreversible destroyed for economic gain such as the destruction of tropical rain-forest or the abstraction of finite minerals and other resources or even worse those living in an area where there are wars or violence inflicted on people as a means to obtain wealth, power and control things are a lot worse when your being exploited at the expense of the person that is exploiting you.This can be done through both legal and illegal means of exploitation.  

The most logical means of production and consumption to a maximum number of people at a competitive price should be by individuals and organisations but just as ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. The cost to humanity, our ecosystem and our governments integrity should all be priced into production, the means of production and our ability to consume and sustain our ability to produce and consume. 

Our governments today are not deep thinkers and do not show signs of thinking outside of the box of tools within which they think they are provided with. Capitalism and consumption should not be at any cost. A system that eats itself, destroys its own environment and severely impacts on humans within its own sphere of influence is not a healthy form of government and should therefore not be aspired to or believed to be the only economic game in town.

Just because the exploitation that feeds your economy take place on  a global scale and not in your back yard does not mean that the people within positions of power whom exploit others that live within your countries are not in some way responsible for the exploitation of the globe, the chances are the greater wealth that is obtained by someone in this world will likely be at the expense of the planet or the humans within which live upon it that have been exploited in order to capitalize on said wealth   

Just as bees collect pollen and produce beautiful wondrous nests full of honey. We as creatures must consume to exist and wondrous things have and continue to be produced as we consume and exist. As we produce and engage in ever wondrous antics to assist us to hopefully at first survive and if and when possible thrive. Consumption to exist and where possible thrive is very much in our nature but just to be a capitalist being born to exploit at the expense of others is perhaps perceived as normal but not truly necessary or sustainable into the future. 

A healthy society of consumers needs to have strong and robust legal system designed to prevent genocide, ecocide and other forms of manipulation, destruction and death across society so as to maximize the amount of sustainable growth and consumption but not at the expense of those with power, wealth and money being entitled and enabled by our political, legal and media establishments to destroy the environments of others or itself merely for profit from such actions themselves. That is not just an unsuccessful use of a system but one that is inherently flawed for humanity and the planet within which we live upon and sustains our lives.