I've always looked up to people more intelligent and better-read than myself, which is a huge portion of the planet.
With whatever it is I have (ADHD being the trendy excuse - or laziness in old money) I am more open to verbal persuasive evidence-based argument than reading stuff in a dusty old book.
I always wanted to be more intelligent than I am. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not an academic. At the same time the memory is its own arbiter - it makes the decision of what is remembered and what is not. In my case it's a variety of not necessarily useful information.
I read something or remember something I heard, then can't remember all of it, but it moved me and resonated at the time. Damn - I can't explain why I have this opinion yet I know it's right!
That's me. I yearn to be super intelligent, but I ain't. I wish I had all this evidence to hand when in an argument or discussion with someone of opposing views. Maybe I did in certain subjects once upon a time. I certainly don't in most cases now. I find it very hard to draw on material now - it simply pops out of existence when I try to grab it from my mind, like memory-bubbles.
If someone asks a question I'll usually have a go at answering - I think this is because certain teachers or bosses I had would have a go at me if I didn't know something. So I feel I should know.
These days I still give it a go but I am more willing to shrug my shoulders and say 'I dunno!'
I - Geraint Davies - am the Dunning-Kruger effect in person!
The Goebbels family from Droitwich
That moment you sit down with people you've been introduced to who you spent a drunken evening with and you accidentally mention you were listening to News Agents USA and Page 94 on podcasts, and they end up being UK QAnon nutjobs and tear into George Soros (the Jewish Billionaire) and immigrants, even though the faceless billionaires who are paying The Telegraph and the Conservative Party to toe their line and keep bleating the message that poor people and immigrants are the problem, and then....
I.e. you don't believe us white people are being replaced by browns/blacks/Muslims?
Goodbye, you conspiracy nutjobs.
Let's analyse this. Who are the 'deep state'? Why would they do this? Why, in spite of your education, do you believe this?
Who is organising this replacement? How are they doing it? What is in it for them? Do you have names, societies, political parties? Any evidence whatsoever?
Of course not. It's circumstantial at best isn't it? And the gaps are knitted together in a Graham Hancock "I believe this..." type of way.
Bollocks.
Educated, functional humans who, despite their clean, trendy, healthy outward appearance, and pleasant dispositions are actually as bigoted as it gets.
It's like John Carpenter's "They Live".
Conspiracy theories are on the surface plausible arguments which serve to justify people's bigotry or low-self esteem, usually offering simple solutions to some very complicated issues.
Almost all fall by the wayside when challenged. But even when debunked, people return to them.
And no matter which conspiracy hole you choose to go down, all conspiracies end up at the oldest one in the book - that the Jews are behind everything.
Games
I'm thinking of getting a gaming PC. I have a budget of about £2k but I'm umming and ahhing a bit.
I realise I should really go and take some exercise rather than just sitting on my backside in a virtual world for months at a time.
I walk Tomos for at least an hour first thing every morning. But I should do more.
So I booked 3 sessions at the local public school for use of their pool during the summer hols. I haven't swum for years so I'll be very tired after that. It'll be good for me though. I love swimming and it's my favourite flow-activity.
Also coming up are the Pilton kids' sessions of D&D so I'll have to prep something for that.
Maybe I can have both swimming and the PC.
Yes! I want it all!!!
D&D tonight at Seager Hall. Must do some prep. Finding it harder to motivate myself these days.
Flip-flops
I love the smell of new flip-flops. I guess it reminds me of summer holidays when I was a kid - smell is the most evocative of the senses.
Regard my flip-flops. Are they not magnificent?
Anyone who knows me will tell you I like a flip-flop. I seem to sublime these days from big winter boots to flip-flops. I guess my recent trainer acquisitions are the solution, but flipflops, are really where it's at.
I hear some people struggle with the flip-flop.
I for one do not.
I am an expert flip-flop wearer.
Dove Soap (rant)
How can it even exist? It's a mild detergent with 1/4 of oil. Eh?
It's like trying to wash yourself with a Hag Fish.
I have to use some WD40 and a wire brush to get the bloody stuff (Dove soap, not Hagfish) off my hands.
Just use a traditional soap and put the moisturiser on afterwards if you need it.
Dove soap does not work. And apparently it's full of chemicals that your skin can have a bad reaction to.
Bloody rubbish.
Music
No1 in the hit Parade, 1926. That was someone's act for 50 years.
My friend David used to go to the last Music Halls in the 1960s and knew these songs off by heart. I had to look this up. He knew all the lyrics.
Those annoying songs with "Whoops" in the title, as they said on Blackadder goes Forth.
Have a good 'un me sonners, as they say in these 'ere parts.
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