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.
So on Sunday Dad drove me to the bus station with my suitcase and backpack to get the coach to Hammersmith. Just like being a teenager again.
It should have been in Wells by 8.55 but it didn’t get in until 9.20, which meant we hit the traffic on the A303 (past Stonehenge) and arrived in Hammersmith at 13.00. I then missed my connection to Norbiton and was late for D&D at The Willoughby.
(I get quite flustered and stressed by the thought of travel these days, but I never used to when I was , er, normal. Still, I still have the wherewithal to travel on my own, get tickets and plan an itinerary.)
It was great to see the pub so full. Rick, the landlord, has been brilliant to us gamers and allowed us to play on Sundays and Tuesdays as well as storing bulky terrain. Covid was like a nuclear winter to the hospitality industry so it’s great to see a renaissance in customer numbers. We’re regularly numbering 20-30 on Sundays upstairs, and now the Premiership has restarted customers were abundant.
It was great to be back in Greyhawk again (I’m talking about the D&D session now) where we encountered more cultists, but don’t worry: we killed them :)
Did I tell you I now have a group of D&Ders back in Wells? They are fantastic and we started a session last week. They are super nice and super enthusiastic. I can’t wait for the next session, but more to come on that.
Woken by scuttlin’
I stayed at Adrian’s house on Sunday night. I stayed in the room where he keeps all his exotic pets - you know the types, Amazonian tree frogs, hermit crabs, spiders, poisonous toads.
My new bestie.
I put in my earplugs, put on my eye mask and went to sleep. I slept for ages only to be woken up at 3.30 by very loud scuttling of the hermit crabs in a tank. Little buggers.
The older I get the more I love nature. The yellow and black dart frogs are fascinating and beautiful - and barely 40mm long. The toad (about 50-60mm) has a bright yellow belly which I didn’t get to see which it bares to predators to say “ I die - we both die!”
The hermit crabs so alien and weird - scuttlin’ bastards. Fascinating nonetheless - picking up discarded shells as their new homes. Isn’t nature ceaselessly amazing?
The Light Newspaper
Whilst in Wells, my friend Mark was visiting his Mother there. We were in The Crown, which - as anyone who enters there will be aware as it’s rather shouty about it - featured in the Edgar Wright film, Hot Fuzz.
We were enjoying a pint and Mark found a copy of The Light, secreted somewhere as though hidden with the intention it be found like a dirty magazine!
If you’re not aware of it The Light newspaper is a conspiratorial rag were QAnon theories meet the New Age. All MSM (Mainstream Media) is part of the deep state, scientists are too, 5G masts are there to activate the Covid vaccinations within us, and the usual stuff about Jews.
This piece of toilet paper is sold on Glastonbury High Street, and I’m told the vendors are quite aggressive if you don’t buy a copy - which reminds me of Scientologists when you question their ‘religion’.
I left this particular copy with Adrian, and while we may laugh at its contents, there are enough lunatics who believe the wildfires on Maui were government made in order to clear the whole island so they can build a new ‘Smart City’ and control us all.
Despite the fact there is ZERO evidence to back any of this SHIT up.
Slumming it in Hertfordshire
I’m spending this week with my friends in Herts. They have a beautiful house, the sun is streaming down, and dragonflies, butterflies and buzzing insects are abundant. In the distance past the swing hanging from a branch, Canadian Geese munch the grass. A lone swan and coot swim in the river by the weir, periodically a kite and a buzzard vie for airspace.
I’m sat at the magnificent dining table made by family friend Jim Distortion of Metal Machine UK. To my right is the beautiful designer kitchen. Bisto the enormous brown Labrador is somewhere around…
I made this promotional video earlier. Take a look:
Another 3 days of this. Ghastly.
Then a few days in Kingston where I will see Jacqui and the dogs. Apparently Tomos is already missing me.
I love dogs, but I’m also blessed with very kind human friends.
