God Guided My Hand

I'm still reading the Jordan Ellenberg book and I've just finished the chapter that explains how to win at the lottery, which basically means finding a certain time of lottery and having your syndicate write out and enter 300K tickets when the conditions are right, and this can guarantee a profit of maybe £50K , so not for the average punter.

The current chapter talks about the likelihood of the existence of God (He does exist and I follow him on Facebook here and instagram here incidentally) and the mathematician Pascal (and Ellenberg) reckoned that even if there was only a 5% chance that God existed , and the rewards for believing in Him are Infinite Ecstacy , then 5% of Infinity is still Infinity, so it's a great investment either way. OK there's a 95% chance there is no God but the investment is still worthwhile because if there is a God you are well rewarded. However this binary argument is flawed because There may be no (Christian) God, there may be a (Christian) God , but there may be other Gods who will condemn you to eternal damnation so the belief suddenly becomes a very big gamble, now it's happiness or nothing or misery.

It's also like sometimes I will see something like a horse bet, or an album I've never heard of and go for it based on no logic that I can think of and the horse will win (the other week the name "Sea Monkey" was jumping out at me, it wasn't the favourite and was going to bet on the favourite but then changed my mind and made a profit) , or the album will be brilliant and there are people who will say God guided them to this wonderful situation when actually it's nothing more than coincidence and good luck. Usually those things are followed by an increase in belief and confidence until the next one doesn't work out.

Anyway the song that comes to mind is The Saints' "Church of Indifference" , probably my favourite Australian band. Have a good Wednesday everybody.

Sweat, Sweat and Sweat

No blood, no tears but a lot of sweat. Due to one thing and another the lawn has not been mowed. It needed doing on Sunday when I got back but I was too lazy, and then yesterday there was rain. The nights are drawing in , but tonight was very muggy, but I forced myself to do it and ended up very hot and very sweaty and therefore no one would want to be withing a million miles of me tonight. It is strange how you never want to do this things, but you do get a sense of small accomplishment when they are done.

As I've said I doubt I will hit #August50 but this edges me a little closer. I would have to average about four posts a day , which is easily do-able , and I have about four things lined up to write about, and as I only tend to write about 250 words , that would be a thousand words a day , and proper writers do that ten times over.

So tomorrow I have a hospital check up so fasting from eight o'clock tonight I think, then I am not sure if I should take drugs or not, so I will bag them up and sally along to the Freeman, though it means I need to leave the house about seven as I am not sure what time I am supposed to be there. It's a flexible arrangement.

A song for this , well it could have been something by Lawnmower Deth,  but I willl go for the more sedat but no less eerie "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe" by Genesis. You know why.

"When The Sun Beats Down

And I Lie On The Bench

I Can Always Hear Them Talk.

Me?

I'm Just A Lawnmower.

You Can Tell Me By The Way I Walk"

Back

Just back from a great weekend in Epsom and Brighton seeing Lesley, Matt and Nick , and actually getting to see Brighton Pavilion which is an impressive structure and saw a couple of excellent buskers Linos Wengara Magaya & Gary Cove (playing a vague jazz on Mbira and saxophone). You can see a bit of them here on my Instagram Channel.

I walked 15 Km up and down Brighton Beach ( and I'm sure Matt, Lesley , Nick and Fiona walked further) but that's a record using my latest tracking software Pacer (which is still working on my Xperia, which now has a shattered screen due to me dropping it, I did this many times with my Samsong Note 4 , not a scratch, but my Sony , instant screen shatter) . To put the distance into context Matt will run that far if he's eaten something he maybe shouldn't have to burn off the calories :)

Anyway I wasn't really going to write about the weekend, although I have done it now, and have another one in Dalgety Bay next weekend which I am looking forward to , with Scott and Maureen , plus a bit of time in Edinburgh. I do prefer the train to driving.

In Brighton I was wondering if I'd see Nick Cave , but no , there was also a big "Free The Nipple" parade, and great to see people to dress as they want, it wakes me irate when people are ok with others carrying round assault rifles and other weapons, but explode when they see a woman breastfeeding or actually displaying a nipple. It's ok for men to be topless but not women. It's often worsen with the odd asian / middle eastern couple where the man is just wearing shorts and woman is completely covered bar a slit for the eyes. The thing is sometimes nudity empowers people, sometimes modesty empowers people, but it should be their choice and they should not be oppressed and denigrated for that choice. Though I am offended by people who wear face masks in everyday situations, this includes IRA Terrorsist balaclavas, asian pollution facemasks in Newcastle, and niqabs , they all offend me equally.

Anyway less of that and we'll have Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" before I get off to work. I think the #August50 is dead and buried, to hit it I would need to post thrirty times before the end of Bank Holiday Monday (but you never know).

Still Not Vegan

Since my last post I've had chicken in a wrap and salmon in a John West morrocan mix, so I am nowhere near vegan, but I am definitely off most meat groups. I am fine with bacon but chunky meat, steaks. mince generally turns me off , and I only have chicken cut into small pieces in wraps at Butterfingers in Darn Crook. I still like most fish, so generally nowhere near vegan.

6Music just mentioned that Lovefilm is ceasing on 31st October and posed the question "When was the last time you watched a DVD?"  and the fact that in the future that the next generation will not think of having their own copy of a film or music. I certainly need to do a cull of my CD and DVD collection. The James Bond DVDs went to the Westgate Ark Charity Shop because every James Bond Film is on permanent rotating play on TV.

The days are getting shorter, but it's still very sunny and the radio is forecasting rain, which obviously may or may not happen.

I don't think I will hit 50 posts in August for #August50 but it was a bit ambitious, I would have to do two posts a day and at least two days of that period I won't be posting because I'll be in SCotland and London, but it was an idea.

"There's A Ghost In My House" by R Dean Taylor came on 6Music but I'll leave you with The Fall's take on it. Just noticed in the video Mark E Smith bears a distinct resemblance to Gavin Webster (see below). Enjoy your Wednesday my friends.

A Few Thoughts on Going Vegan

No I'm not going vegan , though I enjoy vegan and I am really happy at the growing number of vegan outlets in Newcastle, though a few people have taken my Facebook posts to mean that I have become vegan. (similarly because I support GAY rights, some people have taken that to mean I am GAY, well only in the fact that GAY is an acronym that means GOOD AS YOU so I am as good as you though my sexuality is standard) but back to the vegan thing.

Vegan food is inventive, although I find the vegetarian / vegan sausage / bacon thing a little odd especially the bacon thing. If you want something that looks and tastes like meat then eat the meat. Sausages are a little different, they are offal enhances by spices and other tasty additives, so replace the offal by vegetables and add a vegan casing and that is fine, though I've yet to taste a vegan sausage I like.

Non vegans often argue that man is a carnivore / hunter so we are built to eat meat. Well look at our teeth and jaws and "claws" , just like a lion or a tiger aren't we , readty to rip our prey apart.

Just from a resource thing veganism is sensible, we take or food at source instead of letting it go into a cow, pig or sheep then get converted for months or years before killing the animal and cooking it.

I am not a big meat fan, though I lkie a bacon sandwich, I am fine with eggs and like most fish. So I am not vegan and am just fussy but if someone offers me vegan food then I (99% of the time) love it.

So what song do I choose this morning?  I just got a mention at 6:45 on the Chris Hawkins show for a made up Half Man Half Biscuit song title. This was the email:

"I had a nut roast at The Cozy Dove in Newcastle yesterday before the match (I support Preston so I didn't go)

Also the best HMHB Tribute band name is "It's Not Half Man, Mum"

My Title is

"I Printed My Sunday Roast (On My 3D Printer) Before The Match""

I was thinking mybe Paul McCartney, Half Man Half Biscuit but there are many vegan bands about and I have just remembered a Robert Wyatt song that would be perfect, if very dark. "Pigs In There" .. and that is one of the reasons for being vegan.

No Regrets and Changing Opinions

My first job was in the 1970s so I suppose mentioning names doesn't really matter too much as it's not defamatory. Of course I was a bit anti mainstream music at the time and I was working at Jame Mercers in Preston as an office clerk. It was a nice place to work and there were some great people there, but the money was not that great but you got a Christmas bonus and taken out for a meal as well.

One of the guys Phil Livesly was always immaculately dressed and maybe could have slipped unnoticed into "Life on Mars" or "Abigail's Party", but he canme in raving to me about he'd heard this brilliant song "No Regrets" by The Walker Brothers , I immediately countered by saying it was commercialised and the Tom Rush original was far superior. This was all good natured, and he's one of the people I do miss from my past.

"No Regrets" by The Walker Brothers came on my player today, and it is a stunning version, so I have changed my opinion on this. Part of this is because of Scott's amazing voice. What I then got to thinking was "I wonder if Phil has heard any of Scott Walker's work since then" and what would his opinion be now.

A contemporary Scott Walker album is not for the faint hearted, and I have a feeling that "Tilt" or "Soused" will not be on Phil's iTunes (I know he'll have an iPhone) . So on this I will include both versions for you to listen to , enjoy both , and if you dare ... go and explore some contemporary Scott Walker.

You Gotta Have Faith

We all have it in one form or another, and one of the problems is that concepts of faith is usually hijacked by religion to get your support without any real promise of a reall benefit to your reself. Your life may be bad but you need to have pain and poverty and then you will get unspecified rewards in heaven, really? I am agnostic and there may be a god but I have not seen any evidence in my lifetime or any real evidence from the past. People cite The Bible as support or evidence, but that book is continually being rewritten and amended. There's a King James' Bible , sixteen hundred years after the events supposedly happened. You think that would be accepted as evidence in court, yet we swear to tell the truth on The Bible!!

The faith I do have is the faith I have in my actions adn what they cause. I work and therefore onece a month I receieve money in my bank account to stave off poverty. That is then used to pay bills and I believe that the people requiring money with receive it.  We put a hell of a lot of faith in eletronics and people and most of th etime it is well founded, although tis week two things happened where my faith was not rewarded.

Firstly Betfair withdrwals are nrmall y in my bank in two days, and this week withdrawals from Wednesday and Thursday have still not landed. A worse example is my insulin prescription that I ordered on Monday. I went to pick it up from the chemist (I'd injected my last on Saturday morning) , and they said they had received nothing. Insuling is fairly important to a diabetic. The first thing they said was " .... and as it's Saturday we can't ring the doctors" ... that was swiftly followed by "but we'll give you an emergency box but could you ring the practice on Monday". The NHS don't usually let you die and I am thankful I don't live in the USA. These two failures maybe say we  have to be aware that sometimes things we have faith in fail us.

You thought I was going to include a George Michael Song, though you will have seen The Who picture when you opened up the post. I always like this song from their "Odds and Sods" compilation.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday