Darth Vader the Internet and Apple's i-egg Collection: From Google by Amazon through Facebook

The opening lines of War of Worlds is very useful in the understanding of what is slowly but surely taking over the world...Google has now started collecting it's employee's eggs. Yes, Google is going to store our internet history, Facebook is going to store our lives, and Amazon is going to sell us everything we want. From StreetView, Streetshop, to Google Glass and 'Minority Report' style advertising. A new twist in this long running saga begins: Silicon Egg Valley Freezing


Apple and Facebook are now going to store it's employee's eggs to help keep staff on board and enable a better work environment. But my cynicism suggests that it's not a far cry for the largest of providers to our daily needs, to not only collect our everyday conversations, most of our internet history, to sell us stuff (probably through Amazon) and enable governments who deny they watch us when they can generate reports fairly quickly from internet providers said be holding our details...can now assess our every move from Google's advancing state of centralised searching.

Our lives are now beyond government organisations, private companies in line with the secret world of government spies and listening posts are inspired to now collect our DNA. It's not a far cry to suggest that sperm will also be collected and the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple can create it's own people for it's own workforce, Google staff creating Google Humans for Google Jobs. They could even have a go at some genetically modified variations, stem cell research pushes on, the private industries could manipulate, test and grow it's own advanced elite staff.

Utopia (Channel 4) may unfortunately be closer to the truth than we'd all like to believe...they know we're short of resources and with so many people around, at what point does a government or a private company with all our details suddenly become our worst enemy? Generating it's own people removing the rest of society from the loop or just removing the one's it doesn't want, by setting off a viral pandemic...an Ebola outbreak may well be an advantage to these companies.

May I remind you of the start of War of Worlds by HG Wells, (many variations on the quote exist)

"No one would have believed, in the early years of the 21st century, that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes...and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us."

As google collects our everyday data and facebook collects our lives, soon google humans will do google jobs... and Darth Vader won't need to vote in Ukraine, representing his Internet Party of Ukraine. His suggestion to remove MP's from government by replacing them with computers.

Darth Vader the Internet and Apple's i-egg Collection
From Google by Amazon through Facebook...
and maybe a flu pandemic to help.

It speaks the truth in too many ways when you think about it

True Detective turns out to have a lot of catchy phrases, one liners and questions your thoughts long after.

Marty: Do you wonder, ever, if you're a bad man?
Rust: World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.

Marty: Well, you don't pick your parents...and you don't pick your partner.
A smart guy who's steady is hard to find...
You know, I was steady...
Rust was smart.

Rust: This is a world where nothing is solved...There are broader ideas at work.

Sargeant: You ever seen something like this?
Marty: No, sir.

Rust: Someone once told me that all your love, your hate...was all the same thing, that it was all a dream. And like a lot of dreams...there's a monster at the end of it.

Detective: Just what is it you found?
Rust: Something deep and dark.

Sleep appreciation/insomnia society

I have found the lullaby to right the world, justify our needs and take us to dreamland. 

It is not the likes of Cohle from True Detective that should keep us awake with his thoughts of monsters: 
"It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room (points at his head), a dream about being a person...And like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it". 

This will free ourselves as did Coldplays Paradise once upon a time. Forget your monsters, witches, carnages and high powered tempers from the office futility and listen to your long eternal dreams. The ones we had as children, the sweet bliss, take that deep breathe and relax, tomorrow will come but you need to be prepared for it, now sleep... M83 Outro 
 
"I'm the king of my own land
Facing tempests of dust, I'll fight until the end
Creatures of my dreams raise up and dance with me!
Now and forever I am king"

The smell of Cycling

With a new leaf to be turned assessing my current work hiatus, I thought I'd use some of the time to keep myself positive and get back to normality. One thing that does not occur in the back of your mind when commuting to London (sat down/perched on someone elses arm rest/the bin area is also the bag storage zone) is the amount of time you spend sat in front of the computer. When you do get home your no longer capable of exercise for the train journey has rattled you to pieces and work has burned your memory to concentrate on anything useful.

Therefore; after seven months of commuting even though I was carrying a 3.5Kg laptop on a 2.5 mile walk everyday in each direction between the train and home/office, I have found I've turned into more fat, the so called muscles (some people are always going to be stronger than me) I had no longer existed. Which set me thinking, maybe I could do some exercise to break up the week and reintroduce some positives of this odd 'free' time.

Today was the first time I've been out on the bike around town covering Tunbridge Wells, Groombridge and High Rocks. A nice little route a friend suggested which was approx. 6 miles - (my speedo is flat or its not realised I'm interested again). I knew it would hurt, the first one after a slightly longer than usual winter break (it's been wet) always hurts/it's always too windy/it's always nervy and I suddenly don't like how busy town is. So when I got on the country lanes and tracks of NCN Route 18 out of Groombridge back to RTW, I was quite happy until the big down hill into Groombridge became a gradual climb back out the otherside. I was physically...inconsulable, especially as I had to use most of my gears to do hills I used to pretty much cruise over. Finding the rhythm and breathing consistently is key, not being stressed about whats around the corner and how long is the hill is key to a good mind set so you don't burnout on the way round.

After all this hard work and getting off the bike as I was partially lost in RTW Common/High Rocks little lanes -I did the same hill twice! - I got home and could smell my old school Design and Technology Lab... slightly burnt wood from cutting, fresh MDF shavings, perspex glue and a distinct aroma of P38. I think the neighbours are still doing the building work. Nothing like good memories of D.T days to take me off the cycling for a while, it's good stuff, all round cycling and past times from D.T days.

I yet to convince myself - but I do know that what it costs me in alcohol is the same as a years Tennis Membership, not economically better, but certainly the mind, body and soul could be if I quit drinking and did exercise instead (just one part to a bigger story).
Burn those extra calories sat on my tummy/swap them from lazy fat to lean muscle engines.

Don't be poking my tummy now, I didn't know I was so squidgy :-P  - you know who you are!

We ride tonight for tomorrow may never come

Through Ashdown Forest the sunrises and bakes the land early for a late march morning. Still, the ground remains saturated, yet the overflow gullies and streams cut out into the grass heath footpaths have stopped.

What remains is the the water flowing along the main stream. This no less sounds nearly twenty years old. Back to my childhood of rolling miniture waterfalls on the pond, the stream ti Ashdown Forest carves over tree branches and round corners, bubbling... no different is that sound of gushing water you hear when visiting the fish pond shops.

Maybe childhood was not as bad as I remembered,
maybe that was what got me into this career;
the need to play with water
listen to it changing tune and paths,
dependent on the days weather.

 ----

If when passing places, you meet no people,
it does not matter, for the river still is there,
it does not stop, for continual motion is it's job.

At night it is asking questions, wondering where people retreat,
the search and belonging, the passing of time,
will at times allow it to rest, for it is at peace.

It may see more in winters, and less in summers,
it even runs a close shave of death when summers peak.
Time still tells it, it will be back, the land sits ready for it,
like a tree dormant through winter.

The tree knows no end,
and even after a hundred years,
the tree still stands.
The tree waits for the river, sucking water from beneath the ground.
The river see's its job, eternity, continual motion.

The tree knows time is limited but takes a new form,
materials for the people passing,
a returning of the energy to the ground.

The river knows the tune it holds,
people passing will stop and stare,
listening for the rolling on the waterfalls.

----

 We ride tonight, for tomorrow may never come, the river will continue its motion.

I know what's missing, a challenge...

----
Please click on the links to you tube music as you go along.
----
 I know what's missing, a challenge...
Maybe it's the lack of Tennis,
maybe it's the cycling challenge that's missing,
kayaking of late has been a nice thought,
it be nice to do.

Anna Ternheim, Shoreline

Moby, Flower
New places, new ride routes to explore, a break up north, to get fit,
write to the job people who may give me my next milestone,
to get back in the saddle and go with the red lights of trains and cars falling (fading) in to the distance.

Moby, Flying Foxes

To new heights, hill tops to look out upon the landscape,
 where the sun might go down,
 but rises early,
ready for a fresh run of sweet smelling rurality.
Rammstein, Haifisch

The motion.
The journey.
The freedom of pedal power.
Bushcraft is the way forward.
(An old story of Ray Mears living in the wild no less)

Anna Ternheim, My Secret

 Du bist das Schiff ich der Kapitän
Wohin soll denn die Reise gehen
You are the ship, I'm the captain
Where do you want to go? (Rammstein, 2009)
-
I thought of doing the London to Brighton night ride this year but it's going to be mental and not much to see.
So the Music is a helper to the cause of all:

I know what's missing, a challenge.

Completing for the sake of completing

Something has changed recently, now the year is fully underway...who would believe were already half way through February...time is challenging us already the deadlines are coming through thick and fast again. As I said though, something has changed, why is it I now have the urge to complete things, tidy things so that they cannot be undone.

For example, I've suddenly become a minimalist, I want absolute tidy clean kitchen sides where a little bit of stuff hanging around was ok. This is not OCD, just perhaps finally getting the hump with other people not tidying up. I've also found that bottles with alcoholic or not need to be completed, as if it can't sit there as an enjoyment for the next occasion it needs to be finished off and binned or a fresh one needs to be ready to go and located in a specific spot where it's not going to get in the way. Uber organised, I think not.

This also seems to be the case for books too. I'm in the middle of what is turning out to be quite a good read. 'One Man and His Bike' by Mike Carter, except even though I'm only 90 pages into it, I now feel the need to get it done and dusted and out of my hair. As if for some reason, it has been yelling at me for too long to get on with it. I always seem to find things saying you need to do this and either not having the energy or the time to bothered to do any of it.

 Once again I have to get on the train for London, my office has kicked everyone out who isn't needed whilst the flooding continues. Maybe, I should be grateful for not having to travel so far, but it's now incredibly strange that I don't want to work from home either.

Did I get itchy feet? My voice hasn't cleared up with this unending amount of coly cough, I'm going to sound like a really odd person, or maybe just maybe if I'm lucky I'll sound like Brian Cox (the actor) with a hint of Charles Dance in the air...who knows.

Either way, have it your way.
This item of writing ends here.

Why St. Valentine?

My Lovers Heart,
my bleeding Soul,
you keep me safe and make me whole.

How I wish upon the star,
for all of your desires to come true,
you are sensitive where I am not,
your tender loving care out strips my humanity.

To find someone so refined,
like the perfect grape upon the stalk,
is to find the cherished Angels on the Clouds.

Not you or any other, can stop my heart from dreaming of you.
I am yours, need I say more.
Forever my loving Giggle,

I love you,

Tickles.

Winter Olympics -Epic Advert

I'm not one for pushing things along too often but as is seen by a few handful of very cleverly portrayed adverts for films, books, TV and radio programs... the style required for the Olympics has been on another scale as was back in 2012 series under two mainstream UK channels. This one however, makes you feel the need to rise to a challenge like no other, a stamina of endurance, something longing deep inside that you must answer to show you are capable of succeeding and beating the odds. It strikes your heart at fear and drives you towards a sense of possible fulfilment, challenge accepted... I give unto thee... The voice of Charles Dance. I'll have that voice thank you, and add it to the radio concoction I have tried to produce from time to time. (If only I could master words and a voice like this).

I am the dreadful menace.
The one whose will is done.
The haunting chill upon your neck.
I am the conundrum.

I will summon armies.
Of wind and rain and snow.
I made the black cloud overhead.
The ice, like glass below.

Not you, or any other.
Can fathom what is nigh.
I will tell you when to jump.
And I’ll dictate how high.

The ones that came before you.
Stood strong and tall and brave.
But I stole their dreams away.
Those dreams could not be saved.

But now you stand before me.
Devoid of all dismay.
Could it be? Just maybe.
I'll let you have your day.