Declining populations and reactions to it

The remote Japanese village of Nagoro is known around the world for its population of life-size dolls- approx. 350 dolls to the approx. 37 residents left.

One craftswoman is responsible for their creation, and for the last decade, she's made them to represent those who left and those who passed.

You can read an article about it at the link below:

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/26/490687505/a-dying-japanese-village-brought-back-to-life-by-scarecrows

What struck me about the entire thing is that she did it because the population of Japan is declining, and this can be seen in the more rural areas, one of which is where her village is located, nestled deeply amongst the mountains. 

In general, however, the world is gaining a longer living population, with less babies being born, and the young migrating to more densely populated cities in search of jobs.

It happens everywhere! That is why in the UK, the pensionable age is rising, and why there's been arguments about whether to retain or keep the travel and TV licenses free for the elderly.

Now, due to the covid pandemic, the argument is whether to raise NI for the young to ensure better resources for the old. That is only one example amongst many  arguments going on within the political realm, and you know, with arguments, there are never any winners.

I accept that my idealistic view of the world will never come to be, but all I can do is contribute and create my own type of legacy so even when I pass to the other side, I am somewhat immortal. This blog will probably exist longer than I am alive and that isn't a bad thing! 

Best to make the most of what I have now, eh?! With a couple of frozen margaritas to start me off!

How to defuse a culture war in the right way

I read an article today in the Evening Standard, page 12, by Tom Newton Dunn. It's called 'How to defuse a culture war: a group of London schools found a way', and it basically talks about how the benefactor, Robert Aske, started the Haberdashers' Aske's set of private educational institutions from a request he made when he died in 1689.

The issue with the benefactor was found out recently, in March 2021- that he partially funded the Royal African Company, which, apart from obtaining gold and other valuables from Africa, also extracted people and made them slaves.

Due to this, the Haberdashers school  governors had to decide: should they cancel Aske as a benefactor, or defend him? They decided to do neither, and consulted with all students, parents, alumni and school staff, the numbers of which exceeded 800+, for 6 months.

In the end, they decided to remove his name from school titles but not from the formal legal name of the federation, and they used his statue as an educational tool to teach Aske's history and explain it, both good and bad.

They found a third way that was almost universally accepted by all people associated with the schools, which can be summed up in the following excerpt: 'Undoctrinal, built with intelligence and sensitivity. Peaceful resolution and consensus has been found to an extremely sensitive cultural divide by painstaking consultation and debate'.

I read somewhere that each person is the sum of every person that they have ever met. If every person could be exposed to variations of such a 'third way', and realise that making a choice is not just either one- right, or two- wrong, perhaps our society would be much calmer.

It's nice to hope.

(A picture of the article is below, which you can read in its entirety.)

Self Mastery (Poem for Myself)

 

(Not drawn by me- screenshot taken via internet surfing)

Tamp sadness down

Push the negative out

With a whisper 

And not a shout

Understand that time

Will take its pace 

Patience is a virtue

Life ain't a race

A tidy place

Gives a tidy mind

An organised body

With goals assigned...

Stops emotion from getting

Too low or too high

Aim for stability

Or the end is nigh!

Remember that goals

Are long term not short

Remember the locus

The world is your court

What you do and feel

Affects all those around you

So keep it on lock

It's not just about you.

Compose yourself fully

You are in control

Let go of any sadness

Then you'll be on a role

To proceed forward rightly

One foot, two feet, three

Chill out and be strong

Be firm like a tree.

Don't lose your focus

Be mindful of others

Be less selfish and yield-

think of pressed flowers!

The time it takes to make them

Is long and you await

moisture to leave petals

But it's worth the wait.

Life is a journey

You go through many doors

When one closes, another opens

So make your life YOURS!

 

Limited Word Scifi Stories

I had a little hiatus from my blog due to work-related issues, but now I am back again! Thought I'd test myself with a brain exercise that tests my fiction-making capabilities using a limited word sci-fi story format from 1 to 20 words, so here goes:

1 word

Space.

2 words

Corporeal Energy.

3 words

Light speed cruising.

4 words

We're all just stardust.

5 words

Implosion of dwarf star imminent!

Virtual reality superceded physical reality.

6 words

The corporeal evolved into the spiritual.

Haptic feedback: now, the new normal.

Groking the new world: peacefully prospering.

7 words

Switching through virtual planes of existence nowadays.

The cosmos mourned the lack of light.

8 words

Groaning, she went back into her physical form.

9 words

Stuck within the nebula, he debated his last actions.

10 words

Instant transportation- to die and be reconstructed; he'd rather not!

11 words

The new frontier was no longer space: it was now multidimensions.

Big Brother- our overseer- our man-made god: had eyes everywhere. 

12 words

Colonisation beyond earth is now a goal and no longer a dream.

Real money no longer existed. Bartering no longer existed.  Cryptocurrency was all.

13 words

Moving from one robotic artifice to another prolonged her lifetime but caused dichotomies.

14 words

Space tourism became a massive industry and assuaged the ennui of the very rich.

15 words

Cracking under burnout, she switched on her VR and relaxed upon a sunny white beach.

16 words

Cyborgs, androids, automatons, humanoids, droids, virtual brains- whatever they were called, they were everywhere offering assistance.

17 words

The future was now littered with idiots and was no longer a democracy- it was an idiocracy!

18 words

Polished metal skeletons encapsulated by sleek metal skins was the new fad as humans seeked to live longer.

19 words

Cracking under the weight of information overload, she pressed her eyes and compressed the info within her positronic matrix.

20 words

Lack of privacy was no longer frowned upon. If you didn't use social media at all times, you were backward.

Augmentation of the artificial to flesh and bone woke them up to the advantages of never being tired or weary.

I enjoyed that exercise. What do you do to stretch your mental capabilities?

This was one of the few sci-fi books that made a big impression on me. If you can, have a read of it- it will definitely stretch your mental horizons!

Tolerance and Patience

Tolerance and Patience are different sides of the same coin. 

As per the dictionary, their definitions are as follows:

Patience means the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.

Tolerance means the ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one dislikes or disagrees with.

So, patience is to do with capacity, and tolerance with ability.

However, what people can tolerate, and how much patience they can give towards their goals depends a lot on how they interact with others, how they understand others, how they react to others, and how others react to and understand them.

Sometimes, tolerance can be given to a person, a daily activity or thing undeserving of the time you give to them- for example, a bad girlfriend or boyfriend. This is when they take advantage of you in the name of love, and you tolerate it because you love them.

It can take a while for you to take off your rose-tinted glasses, and you lose a bit of yourself every time you give in to their demands. 

Also, patience can be given to a person or daily activity or thing undeserving of the attitude you have with them. You let their flaws and foibles go time and time again, and again, you lose a bit of yourself as they take you apart piece by piece with their selfish and possibly narcissistic attitude.

These are extremes of course, and they are part of what makes us human. It is how we adapt, learn, and progress.

But knowing when to exercise tolerance and when to be very patient is like learning to use a knife to peel and chop loads of onions!

Funny metaphor, yes? But a good one, because when you chop an onion, you have to be tolerant of the tears you will cry due to the interaction of sulphur-based chemicals (produced from cutting the onions) with your hydrogen and oxygen-based tears, and you have to be patient especially when you have to cut lots of them!

Anyhow, the main points I'm getting to are:

• Learn to use your patience and tolerance to your advantage. Make them strengths.

• Know that it will be uncomfortable to tell others when your limit is reached, but understand there is a way to tell them with compassion, not derision or anger.

• Know how to say it in a good way- calm and in a low tone. There are no winners in an argument and saying what you need to in an explosively angry manner and a loud tone gains you no fans and just makes the other person more defensive of their viewpoint.

And remember- you're a human, not a robot. You can't just go on and on and on and on taking whatever flak is going on you. A robot can take it to infinity and beyond when it comes to patience and tolerance because they could essentially be immortal (if upkeep of their bodies and brains are maintained). You aren't.

So:

Never: reply when you're angry.

Never: make a promise when you're happy.

Never: make a final decision when you're sad.

Always exercise Patience and Tolerance, and wait at least 24 hours before making any decision so that it is objective, pragmatic and not emotionally influenced. 

Know your limits.

Enjoy your day!

Three Poems in the Sun

Inspired by this glorious weather whilst sitting on a field of green, I thought I'd write three poems. All different in style, and experiments to illustrate different thought patterns...

Sun, Blue Sky, Music

Green field,

Blue Sky,

Yellow Sun,

Birds Fly!

Sweet Tunes,

Smooth Melody,

Chromatic Scales,

Mellow Harmonies!

Cool Shorts

Bright Shirt

Bucket Hat

No Skirt!

Cold drinks

Snack food

Picnic mat

Happy mood!

Close friends

Fa-mi-ly

This is where

I like to be!

Thinking of the Possibilities

A line of trees are on the horizon,

With a field of grass, verdant,

Blades waving in the wind

Hearing the wind

Invisible though it is,

Making its presence known as much

As the music being channeled

Though my earphones.

I think my thoughts,

Stare across in absentness

Dwelling upon my mind's eye

Dreaming brief day dreams

Of what things I could have done

In a parallel life

In a different timeline.

The decisions made that split you 

Off the path of all possibilities

Onto a linear road

Where sidelines are additions to the main,

Where free will is around

But watched by a God that is

Omnipresent.

Omnicient.

And you are one consciousness

Interacting, floating, 

through the multitudes

Of many.

Park Sounds

Swish, Swish

Sounds the Grass

Makes while caressed by the Wind

Whooooo, Oooooo

Sounds the Wind

Makes travelling through the trees

Rustle, Rustle

Sounds the Trees

Make as the wind bustles through

Tweet, Tweet

Sounds the Birds

Make as the tree branches sway

Crackle, Crackle

Sounds my feet

Make walking on dead leaves

Onward, Onward

Words my heart

Makes as I amble towards 

Home

Food and Dieting

Definition of a diet by the dictionary:

Definition of a diet by Jennifer (yours truly):

The amount of food you put into yourself to gain enough energy to do all your daily activities. 

I used to think 'to be on a diet' and 'to diet' or 'to go on a diet' were good phrases. However, as I've grown older, I've realised they have negative connotations, and I have decided that the word 'diet' by my definition, should not be called a diet. It should be called a Healthy Eating Plan.

That sounds more positive, eh? 

Anyhow, I touched upon my plan in an earlier post when I said:

My plan is simple: have a bit of everything you want in moderate quantities, and vary the amount of what you have depending on the time of day.

This plan allows for chocolate and sweet stuff and all sorts of lovely things like FRIED CHICKEN, but only in the daytime, and in moderation.

Eating lots of veg and rice daily is the norm for me, and I've tried all sorts of diets where cutting out certain foodstuffs was the recommendation. It worked for a time, but I'd feel jaded and would then discontinue the diet because I missed such foodstuffs. I just really enjoy food!

And with my mindset and my very active job nowadays, I need those calories to burn! Using my Fitbit as a guide, I do on average 20000 to 25000 steps a day, with my top score being 41041 steps recently. 

The only thing I need to be careful of is my off days, where my body just wants all those calories but doesn't burn off as much. It takes a certain discipline to modify my mindset to eat a bit less, and I am not always successful. But most of the time, I'm okay.

Let's see what I'm like when I retire, lol!

Fear and Progression

I've been listening to an audio-book written by Curtis Jackson aka Fifty Cent on how he earned his millions, thorough a mixture of savvy marketing, broad investments across many interests- amongst them liquor, the creation of G-Unit, and his TV series Power.

In his audio-book, he talked about fear and it made me wonder…

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a coward and a hero? Well, there is none. The only difference is the action each takes when faced with a situation of critical importance. A hero can still be scared stiff but will face the situation head-on despite it. 50 Cent stated that the only thing holding a person back from progressing is fear. And that it was that fear that stopped one of his good friends from becoming the business mogul they could have been, and becoming a has-been, despite having all the attributes and knowledge to succeed.

Even if you know all that can be known about the job you are in- if you don't have the right attitude, if your heart is not 100 per cent into what you are doing, and you don't know how to adapt to others to ensure their comfortability and trust is 100 per cent in you- then it will be hard to succeed, to move onwards and upwards in the direction you want to go in in life. At least, that's what I think!

You will end up frustrated until you accept your shortcomings and work on improving them, until you understand that others are not you and that your high standards are not standard across the board, until you accept that you have to work with what you have and treat them in such a way that you get the best out of everyone.

Being self-aware is actually rather difficult to achieve as it means letting go of a certain level of selfishness and not going so far with your self-focus that it becomes narcissistic.

Knowing who you are and not being afraid of other people's opinions of you are worthy goals that a lot of people don't achieve until they are elderly enough to not give a damn!

It took me until...well, let's just say it took me a long while before I felt confident enough in myself and my abilities to know what I am capable of! I am still earning my degree in Human Nature from the School of Life, but I have good people around me that I can learn from and I hope they learn as much from me and my experiences as I do from them. 

Anyway, off I go to still learn! (And if I learn as much as I read, I'll be a superb scholar at my life's end!)

Why I love Food and especially Chocolate so much

I came across an old article of mine that I wrote back in December 2010 which was fully published in the internal magazine of the company I was working for at the time.

I don't have a picture of it, but I do have an e-copy which you can read below. Enjoy the read!  It is rather long but it is a series of questions that the magazine asked that I answered. I re-read it myself, and it reminded me why I love food so much, love chocolate in particular, and why I have to be careful.

At present, this is my little weakness that I try not to eat too much of:

Because if I indulge too much, my teeth would rot, my waistline would expand, and I'd be a sad mofo! Arghhh!

P.s I don't mind crickets nowadays but they are low on my 'to eat regularly' list, lol!

THE ARTICLE:

My best chocolate experience and why

The best chocolate experience I had was when I tasted really good, 75% cocoa chocolate for the first time. I think I was twenty when that happened. I’d never had it before, because I was used to eating commercial milk chocolate like Flake, or milk chocolate and caramel combinations, like Mars. I’d even tasted white chocolate (which I know isn’t real chocolate in any sense, but is mostly cocoa butter fat with flavourings) in the form of Milky bars.

I had no idea when growing up that there was a better form of chocolate out there! However, I always had an interest in trying out new chocolate bars as they came out. If it said ‘limited edition’ I’d buy it just to see what made it so different from everything else. Most of the time, there wasn’t anything that really stood out. The only thing I really liked was Picnic’s, and that was because of the different textures and ingredients used in it that made it interesting for me. So I graduated to eating plain dark chocolate like Bournville. I remember thinking ‘Wow, I really like that!’

Then I decided to take the ultimate plunge, and picked up a bar of 75% cocoa chocolate. Once I tasted that really amazing chocolate (and it had no additional flavouring whatsoever), my taste buds were spoiled forever! By choice, I didn’t get commercial chocolate anymore. I went for the intense stuff, the stuff of my dreams, that rich, chocolately hit that you can’t get with milk, white, or plain chocolate. I started to notice that the less cocoa solids there were, the less satisfied I felt. I was cheating myself by eating something that was not 'great quality’ to me if I found myself reaching for something like a Twirl, and would eat more commercial chocolate to compensate. I also noticed that commercial chocolate in other countries was inferior- for example, the first time I tried Hershey’s in the USA whilst on holiday, I found it unpalatable. Most chocolates I tried over there felt like extra sugar had been poured in willy-nilly! The only thing I could eat was the Hershey’s plain dark unsweetened chocolate, and that was because I needed a chocolate fix. In the end, I decided that I’d rather go without chocolate if I was going abroad.

Anyway, I digress. The point is: Really Good Chocolate should always be savoured. To not do that is sacrilege! When I try to tell my friends that experiencing great chocolate for the first time is akin to having the most sensual experience ever, they grin at me because they know my character as being intense and passionate when it comes to things I really like...like chocolate! They will (more often then not) try it because I coax them to and because I say that ‘you can’t say you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it’. Most of the time, my friends don’t like it because they have, what I call, ‘safe’ tastes. But amongst my friends and acquaintances, I seem to have built up a reputation of ‘you will try anything edible at least once...and like it’. I find that funny, but what is life but one big time span filled with experiences? And what better way to fill it with experiences then to try different taste combinations when it comes to great quality chocolate!

What is your guiltiest pleasure when it comes to chocolate and to food in general? 

My guiltiest pleasure when it comes to chocolate is eating something that is chocolate upon chocolate upon chocolate. To clarify, that would be something like a rich chocolate sponge shell which would enclose an oozingly smooth and hot viscous chocolate sauce middle, surrounded by a moat of chocolate custard, and sprinkled with cinnamon to enhance the warmly satisfying chocolate flavour. Failing that, I would go for a rich chocolate pot- something like Gu, or I will bake something like chocolate cookies to eat with belgian chocolate icecream. I have my own special recipe for the cookies, and it seems to go down a treat with my sister’s chocolate-loving italian boyfriend. I don’t buy commercial chocolate cookies often. I prefer to make my own because they taste better, and I know what raw and natural ingredients I’m putting in. I don’t like reading a long list of ingredients on commercial chocolate cookie packages when half of them sound as if they should be on a pharmacy shelf!

My guiltiest pleasure when it comes to food is either longanisa or tocino. Longanisa is a cured filipino pork sausage within which tiny pieces of pork fat are dispersed, and tocino is a cured piece of meat (usually pork) which is eaten during a typical filipino breakfast consisting of: fried garlic rice and fried egg. I don’t eat it often because it’s pretty unhealthy, but it’s so tasty to me, and as an occasional guilty pleasure, it’s great!

Describe your favourite restaurant and non-restaurant food experiences.

Why were they so special to you? 

My favourite restaurant experiences...that’s a hard one because I like trying lots of different types of food, and each one has its own merits. So what I’ll do is limit myself to saying: One of the best food experiences I had was trying different regional cuisines in different restaurants in China.  

Amongst other things, I tried fish cooked in a pool of hot oil flavoured with dried schezuan peppers, I tried soy-marinated cold chicken stomachs, and I tried cumin-marinated pig tails. I have a strong stomach in general because I will eat everything and try anything at least once. This is how I know that I don’t like fried crickets! But the main reason I do this is because I love tasting new flavours, new textures, and new foods.

My life doesn’t revolve around food, but the human body needs food and water to survive, and if I’m going to live a long time, I might as well make eating food an enjoyable experience for myself! My taste buds will (and do) thank me for it! I’m not sure if my hips are as forgiving, but staying active keeps my weight in check anyway!

My favourite non-restaurant food experience- growing up with a mum that liked cooking from scratch. Her mother was a caterer, so she learnt from watching and participating, and I grew up on a robustly flavoured diet of good, wholesome, filipino food. I loved my mum’s cooking. That’s why I love food. It’s as simple as that!

The most essential store cupboard ingredients I can’t live without: tumeric, paprika, onions, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, chopped tomatoes, rice OR wholemeal pasta, corned beef, brown sugar.

The signature dish that I make from the ingredients listed above is a corned beef meat sauce eaten with either wholemeal pasta, or rice. It’s simple and quick to make, and whenever I’ve made it, it’s eaten to the last dregs. It’s amazing how simple ingredients can make such a tasty meal!

What is the one, ultimate meal you would like cooked for you and by whom?

My one ultimate meal: 

A deep pie with a surprise filling that is very flavoursome. Crusty roast potatoes with a fluffy interior. Roast carrots and parsnips with a slight crunch and a little sweetness. Mushy peas. Properly savoury and dark gravy. 

Made by Heston Blumenthal.

End

A short post about Health and Hours spent at work

Your health is your wealth. 

I have said this before and say it again because I believe it is important to work the amount of hours your body can cope with, and to keep your body fit,  feed it with enough fuel, and hydrate it sufficiently so you have the stamina and energy for work. Especially in the hospitality industry. 

Only you can figure out how much work hours your body can take, but a good figure is not over 55. 

I know I work very hard, but I try to ensure my fitness so I can cope with my workload best I can. And if it gets too much, I do something about it. Do you?

(Shot taken from Metro newspaper- the world's best known free national daily newspaper- on 18 May 2021)

Stress and Meditation

Stress is a constant in my life. Not the kind that interferes with it immensely, but the kind that motivates me to pursue my goals, achieve my achievements, and complete my accomplishments.

Keeping it low level is the ideal.

If I were stress free, then there'd be no motivation to do anything. At least, that's what would happen for me!

It's when stress is allowed to build up and escalate that it then becomes necessary to do something drastic to release it. For some people, releasing that stress via shouting works. For others, punching an item like a bag or going to the gym or doing another fitness activity works. Even writing about it can help release it.

However, doing a regular energetic or mindful activity helps control your overall stress levels and keep them down!

For example, doing qigong exercises daily for at least 15 minutes is very helpful. I came across this early last year during the vast reading binge I had during the first furlough period (due to the covid-19 pandemic) and decided to do the exercises on the below link along with doing plenty of walking in the forest.

Qigong for the elderly- 20 minute routine

Yes, it says elderly in the title! I believe in starting off something slowly, carefully and properly, and this was a lovely video to learn from and follow.

The qigong exercises I followed here are to do with the Eight Pieces of Silk Brocade, and you can read about it from this link here.

Once I had memorised the 8 movements, and was very confident in them, I decided to try doing a more complex and dynamic version. This has narration on the meaning of each movement, and suggestions on how to carry them out. 

8 Brocades Qigong Practice

I liked the information imparted, and found this video better suited for me. The basics are the same- as they would be in other demonstrations of '8 Pieces of Silk Brocade'- so if you want to explore further, feel free to find a version you like on YouTube!

I find the time I invested learning and memorising the 8 movements in order was worth so much, in terms of a calmer persona and my mental and physical health, and I would suggest to anyone to try it out. Even if you don't like it, at least you tried it and know why.

So, I usually like to do them once I wake up, and it helps set me up for the day, in addition to a big breakfast.

I also believe breaking up big goals down into little steps of accomplishment makes them more easily achievable and less stressful. To help understand this better, it's like doing a 5km run. If you think of it as a whole, completing it will seem daunting and might stress you out so much that you decide not to carry on or it might even cause you not to do it!

However, if you break it down into 1km goals, then it becomes more palatable to the brain and thus less stressful.

Anything to help control my stress is helpful. After all, your health is your wealth and if you care for yourself, your body will look after your self!

This is how I can cope with the hospitality industry I work in, and helps avoid burnout. One should do anything to help them keep calm, and I've found my way. 

I hope you find yours!

On Minaturisation and Computer Chips

I was reading an article on PC Mag online, which was about the start of mass production for the M2 chip by Apple. 

What caught my eye was this particular phrase and the measurement size: The M2 will be a 5nm processor.

Nm is nanometre, and nanometres are measured in billionths of a metre. One nm is one billionth of a metre, and it is used internationally to measure items like computer processing chips, atoms and DNA!

For an idea of scale, see the below picture:

Think about it...an atom can be 0.1 to 0.5 nm across. A chip can be composed of atoms. So in a 5nm chip, imagining that each atom is 0.5nm, there are 100 atoms. Wow! 

Back in 27 September 2011, an article was released, called: Is 14nm the end of the road for silicon chips? Obviously, we now know it isn't, and this was 10 years ago. 

Technology has processed in leaps and bounds, and what was amazing only a few years ago is now seen as ancient!

Will the size of things ever stop getting smaller? Perhaps, but I reckon that minaturisation is finite. After all, the smaller something is, the less scope you have to make it complex, and there is only so much detail you can add to something so small.

An excerpt from an article published 5 June 2020 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology confirms my thinking with its in-depth look at the evolvement of computer hardware tech: 

'In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors that could fit on a computer chip would grow exponentially —- and they did, doubling about every two years. For half a century Moore's Law has endured: computers have gotten smaller, faster, cheaper and more efficient, enabling the rapid worldwide adoption of PCs, smartphones, high-speed Internet and more.

This miniaturization trend has led to silicon chips today that have almost unimaginably small circuitry. Transistors, the tiny switches that implement computer microprocessors, are so small that 1000 of them laid end-to-end are no wider than a human hair. For a long time, the smaller the transistors were, the faster they could switch.

But today, we're approaching the limit of how small transistors can get. As a result, over the last decade researchers have been scratching their heads to find other ways to improve performance so that the computer industry can continue to innovate.'

The article goes on to explain why innovation must occur, since the progress of machine learning, virtual reality and robotics 'will require huge amounts of computational power that miniaturization can no longer provide'.

Humans have always been creative, adaptive, and innovative. I'm sure some mad brain out there will figure out a way, and computer technology will continue on apace! 

Until then, let's enjoy the fruits of computational labour and a dancing animatronic Baby Groot by clicking on the link below!

BABY GROOT

Hobbes from Calvin & Hobbes- knitted version!

I found this unfinished blog from 12 March 2012, and decided to complete it today. So here you go!

I was recently inspired to knit Hobbes from a facebook post written by a mate, who professed to a desire to have their own Hobbes! However, as you know, it is very hard to obtain a commercial plush toy of Hobbes.

According to an INTERVIEW with Bill Watterson held in February 1989, his thoughts on not having a plush toy made are as follows (the font in bold):

WEST: Well, what about something like a doll? That’s not a product like a coffee mag, which would be there whether the strip characters were printed on it or not. Why doesn‘t a doll fit into your definition of appropriate licensing?

WATTERSON: A doll communicates even less of the strip than the things mentioned before. A doll only cashes in on the recognizability of the character. Products like that take the character out of the world for which he was intended. If you stick thirty Hobbes dolls on a drugstore shelf, you're no longer talking about a character I created. At that point, you’ve transformed him into just another overpriced knickknack. I have no interest in turning my characters into commodities. If I’d wanted to sell plush garbage, I’d have gone to work as a carny.

The idea of a Hobbes doll is especially noxious, because the whole intrigue of Hobbes is that he may or may not be a real tiger. The strip deliberately sets up two versions of reality without committing itself to either one. If l’m not going to answer the question of who or what Hobbes is, I’m certainly not going to let Dakin answer it. It makes no sense to allow someone to make Hobbes into a stuffed toy for real, and deprive the strip of an element of its magic.

Bill probably lost over $300 million in merchandising over the years since the comic strip's creation on November 18, 1985 and its conclusion on December 31, 1995, but he never regretted his decision. He held firm on his beliefs, and kept his integrity intact. An admirable trait to have. 

So I ended up knitting a Hobbes, and here is what it looked like:

There is no knitting pattern for it- I just knitted it how I thought it should be, and it is totally unique. Hobbes- knitted version- was very well received!

On such a happy note, here's a couple of examples of the comic strip to end my post with! Enjoy!

I)

II)

An Assortment of Quotes that have made an impression on me.

So far, the culmination of all that I have read and heard in my life has led to the creation of my own personal quote:

Grow older, be wiser, think steady, be you. Teach others, learn better, be stable, be true.

There are many quotes that have made an impact on me, and in no particular order, here they are, highlighted in bold. Any comments I have regarding them follow.

Time Management is Personal Management 

How you handle your time personally is a reflection of how you handle yourself at work. For example, if you are late to work regularly, then procrastination is a familiar friend.

Their enjoyment is our employment (when talking about customers we serve). 

Working in hospitality, the customers are those who help pay towards our wage. There is no such thing as a bad customer, only those with special needs. How we serve them dictates how good an experience they have, so even if they complain a lot, there is always a way to ensure they are satisfied a lot without detriment to their pride or ours.

Burn the candle at both ends but don't burn yourself out.

Spoken by my dad who worked himself up from a very poor family. He was a great example of where hard work and graft can take you.

A job is a job.

Also spoken by my dad after I said I didn't want to work in McDonald's when I was young, because it was a crap job. He said a job is a job, and it doesn't matter what it is or who you work for because when you really need it, it pays your bills and puts food on the table. He told me one of his jobs was mucking out the pigs when he was 12 for a low wage, and he did it because it was a job that earned him money, and without it, he'd be homeless.

Experience is a harsh teacher for she gives the test first and the lesson after. 

Very true- you only learn through mistakes, which are...

Mistakes are never failures. There is no thing such as failure, just rehearsals towards success.

Success takes time. It might take a short time, it might take a long time, but eventually you get to a level where you think 'Yes, I made it!' 

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. - John W. Gardner 

A linear concept but a true one until a time machine is invented and you can redraw your life!

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. - Albert Einstein

Hahaha! But learning the art of knowing when to open your mouth and keep it closed is a hard one. I know- because when one is young, you're always yammering away and sometimes forget that too much information is not always a good thing to give! Talking is a skill, but listening is a bigger skill, and harder to obtain.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

Walk your path in life at whatever speed you deem best, but always appreciate what you see, whether it be good or bad.

Life is like chocolate...sometimes you gotta deal with nuts. - Anonymous 

Of course, this applies because life ain't always plain and smooth.

Procrastination is my sin. It brings me naught but sorrow. I know that I should stop it. In fact, I will- tomorrow. - Gloria Pitzer

An ironic saying that calls you out on your mental laziness to do anything and bluntly points out your timeline on doing anything. So forget tomorrow, do what you need to do today.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose. – Robert Byrne 

Always.

Without purpose, there is nothing to aim for and you end up being flotsam and jetsam drifting upon the waves of life.

If you see your glass as half empty, pour it into a smaller glass. - Anonymous

This made me laugh because more volume in a smaller glass does change your outlook.

Music is not a science, but an art; an instant of true appreciation and perception is worth an age of learning and lore. - A. L. Bacharach 

Music is a vital part of who I am. I appreciate my parents pushing me into playing piano at age 7, and encouraging me until I found the joy to continue the melody and the resultant discipline on my own so I completed all the grades. This made me into a person who listens to most genres and all lyrics, but unfortunately is rusty nowadays with playing piano! Music colours my life with the courage to pursue my goals, and appeals to and supports the emo hidden within me.

If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing. - W.R. 

It took a while to figure out my passion in life. You are never too old to be successful.

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. - Johann Wolfgang van Goethe 

Learning what your priorities are in life can only be gained through your experience of it. The more you experience, the more you understand.

There is one art, no more, no less, to do all things with artlessness. - Grook by Piet Hein, Danish polymath. 

Art can be chaotic yet structured, abstract yet curved, mono yet colourful, ugly yet beautiful...life imitates art, and that's all I'll say about that!

Amid those scenes of solitude... the mind is cast into the contemplation of eternal things. - Thomas Cole

Learning to be alone and comfortable with yourself, to listen to your internal thoughts and feelings, and to  understand who you are- this takes time and space to do.

Shift: to one (life) spent proactively & consciously choosing what to neglect, in favour of what matters most. - Oliver Burkeman

Life is about choices, so it is important to consider the pros and cons of all choices available, and then embark upon that path that fits your aspirations best.

I shall leave you with one last quote, that is actually an old Irish blessing, which, for me, means to always look forward to every day that comes and make it the best I can be, to satisfy my need to have a productive day and know each day is superceded by yesterday's in terms of 'bestness'.

May the best days of your past, be the worst days of your future!

Integrity and other values

I came across this photo via a connection of mine on LinkedIn and it showed the values from the employee handbook of Honest Burger.

I like most of these points, but the implications of some others, not so much.

For example, point 3 on behaviour. It is fine to think like an owner, but as an employee, sometimes it is nice to have guidance and mentorship from someone like an owner. That's how you grow to helpfully become an owner of your own business one day!

Point 7 on what really is personal hygiene. Not sure how to take it because it says 'Be you, but please take a shower', implying that a lot of people do be themselves by not taking a shower! Perhaps it is me and my elderly attitude showing through, hahaha, but if you can't take a shower, at least take a baby wipe bath! I remember reading somewhere that Brad Pitt was a fan of this, and here's a LINK to that.

As for point 9, I agree with this, just not the way it was said. I understand that using a vulgar word can be used to emphasize a point to others and give an impact. However I think verbally this works but in printing- not so much. I think a piece of writing should be able to appeal to all ages (whatever the topic is) without having to resort to vulgarity. 

Otherwise, I agree with the values of Honest Burger as a whole, and it reminds me of the values of the place I work at. Their values reflect what I have always believed in and abide by, and I think the best example of a manager is one who lives their values through what they do, not what they say. 

The wording of my work place values have changed over time, but I still remember what they were at the beginning. Here they are, and on that note, this is how I will sign off:

Humility

Involvement

Passion

Integrity

Innovation

Acronym: HIPII

Now, off I go to be Hipii! 

Coffee

 I like coffee. 

Let me change that to: I like coffee nowadays.

When I was young, I did not like it all that much. I thought it was quite bitter and tasted awful, and that was just instant. My dad loved coffee until his health issues caused him to turn to decaf, and then not at all. He could easily drink several cups a day, even one before bedtime. I used to ask him how he was able to sleep, and he said he was so used to it that it was easy to!

I never understood that. I tried to by occasionally imbibing things non-coffee but caffeinated, but it isn't the same AND I was too wired to sleep. Coca-cola is not the same as coffee, haha! I even performed an experiment when I was in the first year of college- the effects of caffeine on myself. 

To carry out the experiment over a period of 47 hours, I used one day to drink 350ml of water every 24 hours, and a half hour after drinking the water, I would measure my pulse and my blood pressure and record the stats. Then for the other day, I drank 350ml of normal Coca-Cola every 24 hours, and recorded the stats for that. 

Outcome: I hardly slept on the day I drank Coca-Cola and was very tired the day afterwards. 

Hypothesis proven: Caffeine definitely affects me, keeps my body awake, and my brain very active. 

From that day on, I decided I'd only have one cup of any beverage containing caffeine up to a certain time of day (before 14:00) and not every day.

Until now, I maintain this even at my workplace, but I'm not so pedantic that I can't break my rule on that every now and then! It just depends on how intense work is at the time.

Anyhow, caffeine is a legal psychoactive drug that can be drunk in any quantity, and has no social stigma. That's what part of the below tongue-in-cheek YouTube video says, and what an interesting message it has! Click on the link below to see what I mean!

If Coffee Commercials were honest

And on that note, off I go to get a cup of coffee and hope that I don't get as super-active as my nieces look in the below picture!

Poetry Time!

Throughout the years, I have written a lot of poetry. It is mainly to express how I feel about certain topics, and for my own edification. I have written poems for others, but it is usually as a gift because I took the time to write it especially for them.

I said I would share some poems, and so here are a selection that make up the majority of this blog post today. Enjoy the read!

Home

Riding along
On a slow blue train
Traveling onward
To destination known
Sun beats down
On the train's metal roof
As it chug chugs along....
I sit and let the ride take me along
And watch through the window
Looking at green fields galore
At the changing topography
Of concrete buildings;
I think my random thoughts
I listen to music
I sip bottled water; I hear
A single note intoned by engines
Whizzing along tracks of iron;
The train chugs along
Taking me closer...
Reminding me that
I'll soon be back
Amongst familiar places
At my own special place
The one
Called
Home

The first impression...

(I created this non-rhyming poem, because sometimes, some of the actions you carry out when someone meets you the first time, may not be the way you usually are, and give a wrong first impression of who you may be, even if you are usually a controlled, gentle, and loyal soul...:)

The first impression
Can sometimes be the wrong impression
Depending on the temperament of who sees it.

How you act may be a rarity in character
That someone may perceive one way
While another sees it a different way.

You may give more then you ought
Because the piano keys in your mind
played a sweet melody in harmony with their bass.

You may give less then you wanted
Because you think that the gaming rules state this
And lose out on a fortune.

Life is entwined with love
Love is entwined with the stability of sensibility
Friendship is entwined with the joy of laughter
Laughter is entwined with the ivy of hope.

It is a gamble when any choice is made
Results are 50/50.
Nothing
Or everything.

Learning to understand
and give a second chance on a wish
Is the antidote to a warlike world.

You win some.
You lose some.

But you learn that
Mistakes can be atoned for
And mistakes can be learned from.

And you hope
You are not written off
Because of that wrong first impression...

If a flower buds too early
Within the wilds of a snowy plain
Is that a mistake?

Or is it showing its beauty to the oyster pearl moon
To brighten the day of the one man who lives on it
And brings joy to many a wintry night?

Unknown

Eyes that see seek what is blind,
Mouths will speak words that mean nought,
Wordless expressions convey nuances that are lost

And time will show what is missing...

A Double U

Waiting
Wondering
Why?

What is?
What was?
What shall be?

Why the sigh?
Why the moan?
Why the grimace?

What was
What is
Will be!

Seasons

To start with the spring of youthful trust
No questioning of the time that's past
Opinion strong, and selfish moves
Designate a life of capricious moods

Then summer comes, and with that blooms
A spreading of boundaries, like redcap mushrooms
And flowers unfurl from small, small buds
You ripen; and life then proceeds thus...

Into autumn, where wistful dreams will bleed
And leaves fall onto carpets of weeds
The soul contracts, to contemplate
Your life's winding path, the steps to your fate...

And winter is reached, the end of your thread
That Atropos will cut to make you dead
The seasons of this life come now to a close
And you start one again, as you decompose.

The Value of Time

Time is a relative, linear thing. It can go fast or slow depending on my perception of it at the time (haha- could not help the pun!). It can be spent in fun (going out for a walk in the local forest) or spent in gloom (lockdowns- horrible but necessary to protect those we care about) or spent efficiently (at work) or spent inefficiently (being late through oversleeping).

There is a form of poem called a Grook, that a Danish polymath called Piet Hein wrote. He wrote many, but here's one to do with time:

Time is a constant but it is how you use it that's important. In my earlier blog post, I said Time Management is Personal Management.

How you manage your time at home should, in my opinion, be similar to how you manage your time at work. If you are always on time at work, what is there to stop you being on time to a friend's get-together or some other event important to others or to you? What excuse do you have for wasting time?

When you are young, you wish for time to make you older and help you do all those things that are taboo to you as a minor. As you get older, you realise how valuable time is as you approach the unknown date of your death. A morbid subject but one that everyone goes through.

You are born, you live, you die. 

Quality of time spent is important. Time could mean money (job related) but time can also mean spending time with loved ones (priceless). 

Giving your time instead of a present is more valuable for someone like a kid, or your grandparents, or your parents and siblings, who, if you have a good relationship with them, will always appreciate that time you give, however limited it is, because it is infused with love.

You could give a present too, which in such a case is a bonus! But if you give a present instead of your time, it's a poor substitute, however expensive the present is!

If you can manage your time in the way you want, that's great. However, if you manage time into a form of procrastination, what are you doing to help yourself progress in life? Do you want to reach eighty and think I could have done that but just didn't get around to doing it?

I feel guilty looking back at all the things I could have done that I didn't, or the amount of time I wasted being late to events like birthdays. However, time moves on, and as I stroll along my life's path, I use those little steps of experience to help me figure out my path in time so I can manage it better. 

I can only ever improve, and whenever I can, I share what I have learnt which is (and yes, I will reiterate it again here):

TIME MANAGEMENT IS PERSONAL MANAGEMENT

Tick tock, tick tock, tick…