Fifteen Miles

This year I intended to post maybe once every three days , January went as expected but February , well this is my nineteenth post , so it's more like two every three days this month.

I try to do 340K steps every month and most months 11.5K steps a day is enough for that, but non leap year February only has 28 days so the average has to be 12.2K and I haven't done that this month meaning that with five days left I needed to do 75K steps to hit my target. Yesterday I did 20K steps and today I am hoping to complete 30K steps. My record is about 26K but I would like to hit 33K which will be about fifteen miles. Again not a great distance and I have friends who do that on a daily basis.

I did this when Diabetes UK started it to raise money. I didn't raise any money but thought it was a good idea to sort of keep fit, as I hate gyms. The Diabetes UK task  was a million steps in three months but I turned it into a rolling three months which I am still doing now,

This morning I decided to forego my lie in and get a start of maybe six or seven thousand steps. I took a tour through Gosforth and across Newcastle United Golf Course and when I got back I had done 15.5K steps which is seven miles , so almost half way there.

My plan was to walk between 12 and 5 this afternoon which was originally going to be around 25K steps , but with this morning's walk 40K is a distinct possibility but highly unlikely, because basically I am lazy and I could be walking instead of writing this. But I'm writing not walking.

Tomorrow I am meeting my daughter and granddaughter and last week that ended in a 22K step walk so there is a slight chance that I could hit my February total tomorrow , but we shall see.

Thanks to my Google Pixel 2XL I can listen to a lot of music and today it's been the "More" soundtrack by Pink Floyd and "Another Day On Earth" by Brian Eno and while I love the whole album , and have shared "This" so many times , "How Many Worlds" is an absolute beauty so I will share a wonderful time lapse video with you for you to enjoy.

Ten Miles

On Friday I'd decided that hitting my 340K steps this May for the rolling Million Step Challenge was unlikely to happen , then yesterday due my local office not taking a Discogs order to go to the USA I walked into town to the Haymarket Post Office / M&M News who did allow me to post the item.

What this meant is , with other perambulations, I walked over ten and half miles yesterday , 23K steps , which now pots me about 2K steps behind schedule, so maybe I might actually make my target , though I'm just over half way through the month, and the reasons I thought I wouldn't make it still stand.

This is also continuing the #maywriteabit thing although I suppose all my May posts fall into that category.

Though this morning I have already covered 5K stepa and that is close to half my normal daily target.

I switched on 6Music and Chris Hawkins is playing "Isolation" by Joy Division (appropriate for these times) as it's the 40th anniversary of Ian Curtis' death. So as I need to get to work we will share that song and if you listen to 6Music today there will be a lot of related things on there for you to listen to.

I think the clip is from the film Control although has spanish subtitles , but wort a watch. Track down the film too.

Millennium Post #2

I don't know whether I expected to do this many posts. I do know I expected to have a book written but the ideas come and go, and I expected to have some recordings out there and a combination of laziness and "not having enough time" , life and things have distracted me from hitting those targets.

My first Millennium Post can be seen by clicking on the link and was about eight and a half years after I started this blog. This one is about four years after the last one so the rate of posting has doubled and again I'm not sure if the quality has improved although the quantity definitely has.

One of things in the last four years I have started walking a million steps every three months on a rolling basis which was inspired by the Diabetes UK One Million Step Challenge which raises money for charity. I just did it to see if I could do it and it has helped me discover a lot of places that I would never have seen if I had not been on foot.

The fact that this has fallen on a Sunday would have some kind of divine significance for some people but lets face it there was a one in seven chance it would happen. At the beginning of the year I wanted to hit two thousand posts by the end of the year, and because I kept posting I realised I could actually hit it this month, so I have done that.

This means I will soon have the number of posts up to our number of Anno Domini years whether that's significant or not.

So nothing momentous to write about, and trying to think of a significant song for this , should we go with Pulp's "Disco 2000"  or The Rolling Stones "2000 Light Years From Home" but definitely not Robbie Williams "Millennium" (which I always thought was spelt with one 'n') or "2000 Man" by Kiss , but then I saw on "Their Satanic Majesties Request" the Stones had a song called "2000 Man" so we will go with that, with it's heavy Kinks influences. The video is full of images that appear in "The Illuminatus Trilogy" so it's strange how many things just coincide.

I thought Captain Beefheart had a song called "2000 Man" but I had got it mixed up with "25th Century Quaker" , understandable mistake.

So it's a sunny-ish Sunday have a good one and thank you for reading.

A New Low

Yesterday I did about 1100 steps, that's 2K under the national average and the lowest I've done since starting my rolling three month Million Step Challenge. For the first time since I can remember I never left the house, and virtually never left  my bed apart from to have a hot bath the ease my aches. For the last three days I've been suffering from cold and 'flu' like symptoms. It's not real 'flu' because I can actually move.

It's three AM and as yesterday was spent sleeping and resting I thought I could just write a blog post to say what has been happening to me.

I was looking through my digital music collection and noticed I hadn't ripped any of my Cracker albums so I will extract them from the box tomorrow and ad them to my digital collection, so I have shared the brilliant "Teen Angst" with you for this post.

I am finding Simon Singh's "The Code Book" extremely interesting about the history of code making, code breaking and the ingenious ways of passing secret messages from the time we actually started to write.

It is amazing how much time we spend online these days, when I switched the computer on it was 2.22 it is now 3.02, and I will soon be going back to bed, though I really do hope that getting up and writing this doesn't knock me back, but it's Saturday morning so I can have a day of relaxation, though hopefully won't hit another all time low on the step front.

Walking The Mean Eyed Cat

I woke up this morning actually wanting a lie in. It's been a busy weekend. We're over half way through April and I am only just keeping up my steps for my rolling three month Million Steps Challenge. This is something I took one my self that was inspired by the Diabetes.org challenge last year, but I've kept it going. The thing is with a challenge like this you may hit your day's steps but the following day you have to start again, but if you don't hit your target one day they you have to do more the next day if you want to make it up, so to take the pressure off I try to so more steps than neccessary each day so there is no pressure ti hit the daily steps as my target is 340K a month. The thing is this month I keep really slipping off teh pace for one reason or another, it started with bad weather at the start of the month then yesterday I went to Dunblane and back and as a result only did 6K steps, and am about 1K ahead of my required steps.

At the weekend Preston North End came back again to win after being behind against a Queens Park Rangers team who are on fire at home. Preston have won more points from losing positions this season that any other team, but of they reach the play offs it will be akin to a miracle but it still could happen given the final three weekes of matches in the Championship.  I feel my walking this month is like that, but I am determined to hit the 340K.

Last night I watched the Tom Cruise film "Oblivion" which was quite good, but unusual in that you never actually get to see an alien in the film and is clever in making you think that humans are aliens, it is worth a watch.

So today the weather is good and I intend to hit my step target.

Mean Eyed Cat Food

On Friday I had a Tortilla and Empanada at The Mean Eyed Cat which was rather excellent and I will be doing that again (you can see it on my Instagram Channel here) , and Fiona had said she thought it was a Johnny Cash song. I thought it was Billy Le Riley, but Fiona was right so that's the song I will leave you with. Some details here. While looking for the song on youtube I found this great cover by The Johnny Trouble Trio which I can't embed but you can watch here. Don't you love what you can find on the internet.






Have a good Monday.

Millions

Last May I started on a challenge to walk a million steps in three months. I took it up, did it, listeened and rediscovered a lot of my music collection, discovered lots of new places to walk, reduced my insulin intake, lost a little weight and now I'm six weeks away from doing this for a year.

After the initial three month challenge I decided to do 340K steps a month so I would do a rolling million every three months. I though February would be a problem, it wasn't and March started badly with the ice and snow but I am way ahead of my target for the month, with only April to do, and then I'll start again.

It's not actually a huge challenge , less than two hours walking a day does the job and it keeps you a little bit fitter.

I have seen some great sights I didn't know were there including walking bit''s of Hadrian's Wall and areas of Arthur's Hill where they are residential but you can walk a long way without encountering a road.

I was going to go with Spacehog's "Millions" but it isn't on Youtube (I may put a slideshow together) so intead I will treat you to "Tiny Steps" by Elvis Costello. Sleep well my friends.

Turns out the Spacehog song is called "Millions" at all but "Zeroes " and the is one called "To Be A Millionaire", so another example of my memory messing with my memories.

Snow No Show

Well we had no snow in 'Nam last night but it's still cold and the snow that fell is still here but possible slowly melting. Roads are fairly clear but I am amazed that certain places have closed their doors for "safety reasons". My friend Julie is dealing with a metre of snow, now that's what you call snowfall as is the dort of thing that stops you getting out. However think about farmers, they don't have a choice they have to deal with the snowfall or risk losing stock and income.

Yesterday was the first day of March and I only managed 4K steps, which is not the least I've done since I started my rolling million steps every three months in May last year, that was 2.8K on a particularly rainy day in Yorkshire. The problem is by Monday I could be 30K steps down by Monday even if I hit 4K a day. But I do know that I can do a decent amaout of steps a day and I can recover that in a week, so I am not too disturbed.

Anyway today is another work from home day. For me that is far more inconvenient that working in the office but that's what happens when you get snow.

The skies are still grey and featurless and I have a feeling it will be cold outside. Anyway I've done my first Wordpress post on Song of The Salesman here and hope that I can now start adding to that in the blog format, we shall see.

So I will now attempt a walk round the block and will leave you with"Fun Lovin' Criminal" by The Fun Lovin' Criminals for no other reason that Nemone just played it on 6Music and of course  band feature Huey Morgan who among other things has a Saturday morning show on 6Music. I had a horrible sight when I searched for Huey on the BBC site and at the end was a picture of the awful Piers Morgan... ughh

Have a brilliant Friday everybody.

Two Thousand and Seventeen Years So Far ... and I Want More

Five years ago I published a pretty good post about getting older here  with one or two useful profundities (if that's a word, well it is now) , and as we come to the end of 2017 we start thinking about what we will do in the new calendar year. Personally it's going to be another year of doing more, rising to challenges , rediscovering my social mojo, actually playing on the virtual orchestra I have stashed in our back room, actually watching TV series , seeing films and reading books.

I have four recent books of fiction to get through two by Philip Pullman and two by John Niven which I'm looking forward to, and well as numerous new challenges at work which will be great fun to take on.

Some days I would like a longer lie in, but today was typical, I woke up at seven and thought I may as well get up wash and shave and shower , then maybe go back to bed, but then I think I may as well get up.

This year I have started walking maintaining a rolling Million Steps every three months and that has reduced my insulin intake by over sixty per cent. I might do even better if I lived off cucumber lettuce and kale but that would be very boring indeed, although cucumber subs are a great alternative to bread subs and therefore better for you , even though they may not seem that appetising. They are best eaten in summer and I used to make them a lot when I worked from home.

I've got to give thanks to everyone who has been there for  me , helped me, made me laugh , encouraged me , played  games with me , eaten with me, and made this a great year for me. I know 2018 will be even better.

So what is a great playout record for 2017. In September we lost Holger Czukay, but in the seventies I remember him and Can lighting up Top of The Pops with the brilliant "I Want More" which is a perfect sentiment to see out the old year and see in the new.

Happy New Year everybody .... Make it Brilliant.

245

With this post (number 245 this year) 2017 has become my most prolific year for posting on this blog. Maybe my other blogs have suffered but this is my main one. I still have 25 days of 2017 left and, as I say , I have just passed 2013's total. While it would be nice to hit 300, that would mean posting more than two a day til the end of the year, and that is not going to happen. I've posted two posts every three days and I think that is a decent output. I average maybe 250 words a post so that means I have done over sixty thousand words, which may sound like a lot , but it's like when I tried to do the Million Step Challenge, and people go "Wow, that's a lot" when really it's just maintaining 11K steps a day which for me is about five miles a day, so not exactly impossible but that is close to two thousand miles on foot, and I am no athlete, I have friends who will do tens of miles a day showing my efforts to be fairly puny, but they are constant.

I have been keeping up my walking steps and hit 12K today, and one of the albums I have listened to is Public Service Broadcasting's "The Race For Space". Listening to any of their albums you managed to learn something about the past and this album is about the space race in the sixties, using sound samples from the various events, including Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin and the Apollo program. Live they are one of the greatest current experiences you can have.

So I am going to take one of the most positive songs from a brilliant album , the wonderful "Go", live at the 6Music Festival at The Sage in 2015, and I was in the crowd watching them. Enjoy, and I shall soon slip off to bed. By the way this post runs over three hundred words so if you have read all my posts this year you have read over 60K of my words.

Dark Mornings

I always try to be positive, but can't get away from the relentlessness of nature, this time the fact that as summer fades it's darker and colder in the morning. The good thing is that the light usually eventually comes but it brings with it more instances of the aptly named TLA, SAD. My only worry about this is that it may affect my target to keep up my rolling three month million steps following completing the Million Step Challenge, which I have to thank Fiona for getting me into (with first the 15K challenge then pointing out the Million Step Challenge) as it has improved my diabetic situation no end, so even for that one fact it is essential that I keep doing it.

As I have said I don't do regimented stuff, but walking gives me the opportunity to dynamilcally change what I do while still benefitting from actually doing the exercise to benfit myself however slightly. The problem is if it's dark , cold , windy and raining it might get a bit difficult, although since I started this I have only had one day where I have walked less than 3K. Apparently the average person walks about 5K steps a day , so that means a lot of people do a lot less than that as I do 11-12K a day, and a friends of mine over the last year has been averaging 30K a day (my most ever is about 24K).

As I've said before I cannot recommend Pacer highly enough to track my steps, which since I installed it has not had any problems.

Anyway tonight I am going to see Nadine Shah at The Sage, am tempted by a Cure tribute (Liquer) at The Doll at The Black Bull on Thursday and am going to see Nick Helm at The Stand on Saturday courtesy of my great friend Jon Raine.

It's still dark, but time to set off for work, so will leave you with "Seven and Seven Is" by Love, a raucous slice of garage punk (maybe not what you would expect from Love) which just came on the 6Music now, and I thought I know that that song , but what the hell is it. Now I know.

Listening To Albums

I've decided to give random play a rest and actually listen to full albums on my walks. I'm aiming to do 340K steps a month and Pacer still eems to be working. The last couple of days I've only done 8K but I'm still on tarket to hit 340K which will guarantee a million steps every three months on a rolling basis. My friend Carol is hoping to hit TEN MILLION steps this year, that 900K a month and 30K (maybe 15Km) a day. I know people's step lengths differ but that is still some very hard going over a long period of time and dwarfs my Million Step Challenge , which other people seem to think is a lot.

Anyway the albums I have listened to so far are

• Fairport Convention - Nine : Not regarded as a classic but it is one of my favourites, Trevor Lucas' vocals, Jerry Donahue's guitar and Dave Swarbrick's voice and fiddle are wonderful. Songs like "Polly On The Shore" with it's dragging bass, the beautiful "To Althea From Prison" and apocalyptic "Bring 'Em Down" have never lost their power for me.
• Thea Gilmore  - Don't Stop Singing: This is a beautiful labour of love, Thea taking the words of te departed Sandy Denny and weaving a wonderful album. The song "London" made me have to buy it and "Glistening Bay" gives me goosebumps every time. There's a great evaution on the BBC here.
• David Bowie - The Lodger : The one with Bowie's "League of Gentleman" nose on the cover, and like every Bowie album you put is on and then just love every song. "Fantastic Voyage" , "Boys Keep Swinging", "Yassassin"   I could list every song.
• Blue Oyster Cult - Imaginos: This is the album that BOC were destined to make , full almost Lovecraftian libretto and when the remade "Astronomy" kicks in you really are out there with them.

I found a live from Union Chapel take on "London" by Thea Gilmore for you to enjoy, the sound is not perfect, but you can always buy the album if you follow the blue link.

So who knows what I'll be listening to this morning. Time to set off for work, and I think I will walk in. It is a sunny beautiful day and the weekend is almost here. Enjoy yourselves everyone.

Confirmation and Awestruck By James Holt - Deaf Rock and Roller

I was just thinking why is it easier for me to walk and hit targets. Many years ago you maybe had the mechanical, not very accurate pedometers, or you could ride a bike that had an odometer, but as I've said I can't do anything regimented, although some of the stuff I do at work requires a hell of a lot of precision , determination , accuracy and it is almost regimented, the sort of thing that i usually rebel against. The thing is, because I am controlling it, I can change it when I see a better way. I am just introducing some things that I haven't seen done before, and only discovered because I wondered if it could be done, tried it and found it could be done... but I digress as usual.

I think one of the reasons I do find it easier to do my walking is the hand held computers we call oor mobile phones can record and confirm what we are doing and where we are up to with it. Ten years ago you couldn't really do that, twenty years ago it was mechanical and not very accurate.

So I know how far I've gone, how far I have to go and I can check any time I want to or need to. I have had issues with software but Pacer seeems to be doing the business, although today my phone turned itself off, unbeknown to me so I lost a big chunk of recording my walks. Technology always finds another way to screw you over. ALthough I am no longer on the Million Step Challenge I intend to hit 340K a month so I still need to keep and eye on how far I am walking.

I have made an appointment with my Doctor and it will be great to get some positive feedmack on my weight loss and insulin reduction. My doctor is incredibly supportive and a great example of NHS brilliance, I'll tell you who she is if you ask me face to face.

I'm going to give you two songs, the amazing James Holt , a deaf rock and roller, his "Whatever Happened To John" reminding me of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", He is a revelation, a musician , a producer , plays all his own stuff, every instrument, and an inspiration to everybody. Listen and enjoy.

#August50

I had this mad idea of doing 50 posts in August under the tag #August50. That's like two posts a day. The most I've done is 43 which was last October so it's certainly not impossible, jyust it will take time. I really need to be able to to a post in under twenty minutes but more importantly find something to write about.

I finished the Million Step Challenge having done 1,071,635 steps in three months , which took in 92 days, and daily totals ranged between 2.5K and 22K that's an average of 11.6K a day. I was wondering how I could keep this up and decided to set a target of 340K a month and we will see if I can keep to that. The winter months may be problematic and February will require me to average over 12K steps a day.

Today looks a little grey but I haven't hit 11K for a week, but I am going to to hit that today, starting by walking into work, which is a daily target.

It is always good to have something reachable to aim for, and it costs nothing to walk. Although my weight loss is unspectacular to non existent from this exercise and reasonably sensible eating (bread virtually cut out , but the odd Marathon bar when blood sugar drops) today I was 102.6 Kg (16 stone 2lb) which is the lowest I 've recorded myself since getting digital scales a couple of years back,  and I havent been under 16 stone in 35 years so it's a little progress.

Anyway what more appropriate songfor this post than "The Weight" by The Band. It was going to be used in the film "Easy Rider" but the film producer opted for a same version cover by a band called Smith.

Have a great Tuesday and first day of Augus.

Numbers and Men In Skirts

As a kid I used to wonder why we had to learn our "times tables". Learning things parrot fashion , is not useful, especially when you are talking mathematics. Fast forwrd to "some time later"  and I find I don't have to look up , work out , or use a calculator to work out this simple multiplications, I just know them. And applying thouse concepts I'm pretty quick on working out the product of any pair of two digit numbers, but up to twelve I just know them, so actually learning the "times tables" benefitted me.

I am learning quite a lot about mathematics and number from my latest book feast, "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" by Jordan Ellenberg which is just going through the differences between large and small sampling operations which has thown a lot of interesting concepts.

Tomorrow is the last day of the month so this week has been a rest from walking though I have still hit more that 7K each day so I am not being average, and from Tuesday I will attempt to do 340K steps in August and repeat that each month.

The last two days I have felt incredibly drained, and really not up to actually walking , and today I had the added extras of changing the bedding, mowing the lawn , and refilling the bird feeders. Added to that I think my phone is going through one of it's phases of not recording steps (a couple of normally 1K walks clocked at 200 steps), but I still hit 9K today and am 70K over the million for the last quarter.

Yesterday I was totally drained but I got myself over to The Doll at The Black Bull to catch Woment In Revolt (they are the ones in skirts) and you can see the video evidence here from a great night, but I was done by ten o'clock. I came home went to post the video online and managed to screw my computer by plugging in a USB cable. It then took an hour to do a restore, but all is good now and all seems to be working well. I've just had a look at the demographics of my audience for youtube and only 20% are female, I am not sure why that should be, but you could say  "C'est La Vie" as Chuck Berry once said , and we got the Pulp Fiction Twist scene featuring John Travolta and Uma Thurman for you to enjoy.

So the weekend is over and Monday is upon us, I hope to feel a lot more energised tomorrow, so I am going to get some sleep. 

One Down .. Millions To Go

Well I did the Million Step Challenge, though you have to take my word for it that I did it, because I did it solo, and as most of the time I was listening to music that's probably a good thing. Going forward I had set my target of 340K a month so I will always be on a rolling three month million. The thing is as it's still a week til August starts I thought maybe I could have a "day off" yesterday , so what did I do , walked into work, walked around town and walked most of the way back.

I don't usually walk back home because part of it is up hill and I am basically a very lazy person and it's a lot easier to get a bus that walk up the hill, but I did get a bus for the last half mile. I checked Google Fit on leaving the bus, because last time it recorded 25 steps from the bus stop to home. It read 10888 steps , 1 hour 54 minutes walking. I counted 140 steps, got in the house and checked again. 10886 Steps , 1 hour 52 minutes walking. I put the phone down checked it twenty minutes later, and the readings were the same. So either I have discovered time travel or Google Fit is a bit rubbish at times. This has happened several times during my Million Step Challenge so I have probably overshot it by some way.

The thing is, this is really helping control my diabetes , so really this has never got to stop. It's like diets, there is no short term solution it has to be a life style change. That sounds far too deep doesn't it, but I like where it has taken me.

It is a grey day, and after this I will maybe catch the bus , or walk to work. Yesterday one of the songs that came on the player was the excellent "Krafty" by New Order, so that's what you get today. Have a great Tuesday everybody.

One Million

This weekend I thought that I might complete my Million Step Challenge a week early, I had 35K steps to do that's about 15 miles over two days. Yesterday I hit over 17K, so today was just about redoing the steps, although I don't like doing the same thing over, but by mid day I had done 7K so thought I would just finish it tomorrow. Then I thought maybe I could walk a bit further this afternoon, and it started raining. So I picked up an umbrella , and although the rain was coming down there was little wind so I generally kept dry.

 I thought I'd include Doctor Evil's "One Million Dollar" ranson demand as I still find it funny and the numbers are related.

While walking I did listen to stuff I had loaded on the phone and still love After The Fire an eighties Christian Rock band who didn't include religion in their songs that was followed by Age of Chance then back to some XTC and Tom Waits.

Although I have another week to complete the millions steps the fact that I could possibly do it today was a major temptation, and of course I gave in. The million steps translates to between 400 and 500 miles but I won't include the Procaimers song but I'll set my sights lower with Big Country's "Fields of Fire (400 Miles)".

If you want to find out about the official 1 Million Step Challenge , check here

An End Is In Sight

It seems a very long time since I woke up and thought "Bloody hell, It's Twelve O' Clock (Noon)". I am not sure why this is , but it probably stems from when I started back doing 10K steps a day. Weekends are usually days when you can do more, although more steps take more time. I am now 35K steps away from hitting the target of my Million Step Challenge. I was wondering how I would continue exercising after the target had been hit, and was worried I would maybe fall back into becoming more sedentary and therefore lose the benefits that I have gained from doing the walking. We all need goals, if we don't have them then we vegetate and ossify. So I have simply decided to aim for 34K steps a month which should ensure that in any three month meriod I should walk a million steps.

Life is affected by continual change and the need to deal with those changes , which is why so many people railed against Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor Who. This is the thirteenth regeneration of the Doctor, and every one has caused people to complain that the new Doctor is not The Old Doctor (here's a list and as long ago as 1989 Dawn French , Joanna Lumley and Frances De La Tour were in the running) , though the worst complaints are sexist and misogynistic. The term Doctor is not gender specific, and in the last series Peter Capaldi was guarding a rogue female timelord , they swapped bodies and several times talked about their past and whether they were male or female. Further back there ws the River Song / Amy Pond thread , so you can't say that you were'nt prepared for this by plot developments.

Continuing through "Electric Eden" (40 pages to go so another ending nearing) I also came across more things I was unaware of. Until Kate Bush hit Number One with "Wuthering Heights" in 1978 no woman had topped the singles chart in the UK with a self penned song, so thirty years that took. Then, talking about the video to one of the songs from my favourite album of hers "Hounds of Love" , it was conceived in connivance with Terry Gilliam (my favourite director, incidentally Kate performed the theme song to my favourite Gilliam film "Brazil" which I've included at the end of this post) and featured Donald Sutherland who had been angling to work with Kate, that was "Cloudbusting" often mis spelt as "Cloudbursting". The story behind the song is absorbing to and can be read here.

This is the thing, reading can tell you new things and remingd you of things you have forgotten.

I know it's grey but today I am looking forward to seeing my friend Julie with Fiona and possibly doing an unfeasible amount of steps, or maybe I will just get the bus.

Have a great Saturday my friends.

The iPad is Gone

It's grey and rainy and I am have hust been watching Ripper Street and Taboo, lots of grim , 19th Century violence and machinations.

Yesterday morning I had a dream , I think I was in Edinburgh, in some Polish shop but I had to go back to get a codec for a video but the only way out was via a hardboard catflap blocked by a China man on a trolley but I had to go out via side door into somewhere I had never been before , lots of high dark streets, then the alarm went off. I know this makes no sense but it was a dream and I can still remember some of it, so that's why I've written it down here. Some psychiatrist will probable get some insight into my psyche from that, or maybe not .. who knows.

Anyway for the last year I have probably used my iPad to charge up and update IOS and that's about it. I'd originally got it to play with Garageband and basically I just doodled with Garageband. I find my TASCAM portastudio and Audacity far easier to produce music with so I ditched the iPad and bought a Kindle Fire 8. All I've done with it so far is charge it up, but I  hope I will get more use out of it than I did the iPad. I just tried to install the Google Play Store but that wasn't successful and Alexa has talked to me.

I only have sixty thousand steeps to no to hit my million steps in three months in the Million Step Challenge, and after that I pledge to do 340K each month. It's a good way of keeping fit without the boring drudgery (as I see it) of gym membership,

Anyway I thought I would tell you about my dream and how I am no longer infected by Apple but we shall see how the Kindle performs. So a suitable record would be on of the Osmonds goodies, where they try to take on the Jackson 5 leaving you with "One Bad Apple".

Sleep well my friends.

Please Smile

Today walking into town I saw a guy with a very fierce expression on his face . I smiled and said "Nice Day" but got no reaction. He then started cleaning his car. I then got on a bus and there was a guy looking miserable holding a scratch card. It may have been a winner but probably not, but he didn't look happy. I hope it was a winner and I hope he ended the day smiling.

Smiling releases endorphins and makes you feel better, and makes you better able to do whatever you want to do.

I've passed 900K on my Million Step Challenge but today has been an absolute trial. Firstly my phone seems to be losing and not recording steps. One example is first thing this morning that I took Fiona's phone upstairs for her and that registered 92 steps, mine registered 5 steps , and that's what it was on before I picked Fiona's phone up. Yesterday it registered 25 steps from bus stop to home , when it should have been 200 steps. I went for fish and chips on Friday , that's well over 2K steps , my phone decided I'd done 1K. So this is a little demoralising.

Then I've started feeling drained like all the strength is leaking from my arms and legs. If I can keep going for 20 minutes then I can overcome it, but it's like walking through treacle for 20 minutes. I won't let this combination of negativity stop me from completing the Million Steps by the end of July but it does feel like I'm pushing against something, but it won't stop me.

So an appropriate song would be Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" , I know it's Sunday and tomorrow  is Monday, but it's another week, another challenge. Push on my friends , push on.

Popularity

We hear a lot of certain things "going viral" , but I was wondering what makes something popular these days. Most of the posts on this blog get around 50 hits. The highest ones are between 1-2K and some have none. I don't know how many are robots and know that two or three friends read regularly. Though I seldom get any comments on here which makes me think maybe 90 % are robots. I think I've had maybe for or five comments since the blog started.

Recently I heard of some work experience person going viral on Southern Rail. I read his tweets and to be quite honest they were nothing special, but the public seemed to love it. Remember this is someone on work experience at a company that treats it's customers like cattle and yet those customers like X-Factor viewers just take whatever they are fed my their media choice.

So I haven't a clue what makes something popular. A huge media presence helps, talent and ability and fitness for purpose less so. Remember VHS smashed Betamax despite the latter being the better format.

The Internet and modern communications mean that any idea can become viral and therefore popular. I believe the Daily Mail has the most visited media website going, showing the amount of small minded people who are spoonfed the hate and drivel.

I'm sorry this has rambled in no particular direction, but one thing technology has given us is a chance to deal with the media dominated order. Any can become a star , they just need to be in the right place at the right time and have things drop for them. This may sound cynical but it really is just the way things are.

Anyway I hope I have made you think a bit.

I should include a song but what else should I choose but David Bowie's "Fame" . There was a man who worked hard through many failures to achieve his niche in the modern psyche. He went through name changes , images changes , a perpetual cultural and visual chameleon.