You do you. Someone will love you and it’s better that they love you than a you you’re pretending to be.

You maniac! Akways drop to Mater and Pater before you go Mother and Father!

I am instilling in mine 1) a deeply-held belief that their worth is entirely measured by their income, and 2) the unarguable truth that each generation must ensure the comfort and well-being of their parents.

I call it my pension plan.

Definitely. I’ve done a full English breakfast challenge once that had six fried eggs and that was no bother. Hard-boiled, I doubt I could do more than three and I’d be struggling on the third.

Saddleback Leather springs to mind. Their stuff is expensive but they have a 100 year warranty and their tag line is “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead”. I have a couple of their bags, belts, and wallets. I don’t expect to ever need to replace them.

First thing I bought from them was a briefcase back in 2011. About three years after I bought it one of the steel D-Rings for the strap failed and they paid courier fees for me to return the briefcase from the UK, replaced the part, cleaned the bag up, and sent it back, no questions asked.

Full disclosure: 1) they’re an American company which might put some off buying in the current climate and 2) the founder is a devout Christian which might put others off but none of their products have ever tried to make me a believer so I’m ok with it.

Art is an attempt to communicate (usually to communicate something of the human condition). Current ‘art’ AI is too far away from intelligence to have anything to communicate. All it can do is mindlessly try to copy and blend what it’s seen before without understanding it.

I don’t hate it, but I also don’t value it.

My foot is a cubit. My cubit is a yard, if you know what I’m saying. Yeah, you know, you know.

Best breakfast burrito: the Hawaiian. Ham, potatoes, pineapple, eggs, sour cream.

Damn, that sounds good.

Wait, what?

1. Get real good at Geoguesser
2. Post details to local facebook groups
3. Repeat
4. Once I’ve been proven right a few dozen times become a global sensation
5. Save a life on the daily

I think it’s short-termism combined with capitalism.

Capitalism tells people that success equals money. Short-termism tells people to focus on how much they can grab right now.

Look at the actions of C-suite level people. They do what they can to increase profits this year to get a massive bonus this year. If that means laying off half the company that’s ok because they’re incentivised to maximise profits now. So they do. The next year they’re off to a different job at a different company and they will get that job because “When I was CEO of Mongoose & Felcher I increased YOY global profit by 270%”. Their focus is never on the actual well-being of the company or its employees or on the social or environmental impact of the company because their bonus isn’t dependent on those things.

Politicians are much the same. If they’re not in power they want to get into power. If they are in power they have to act as quickly as possible to achieve their aims because they might only be in power for a single term.

One of my favourite ‘business’ ideas came from Gus Levy who was CEO of Goldman Sachs back in the 1970s. He came up with the term ‘long-term greedy.’ The idea was that you dealt fairly and honestly with your clients, never gouged them, kept your word, and did a good job. Sure, you might make slightly less profit from those clients this year but you would keep them as clients next year too.

No-one seems to be long-term greedy anymore.

Kreps or kraeps

In England those would be pancakes or more rarely crepés. They’re what we have on pancake day.

The thicker American pancakes would be called American pancakes, sometimes Scotch pancakes or drop scones.

I remember the first plane hitting and just gawping at the TV. That seemed bad enough. Fucking passenger plane hitting a skyscraper. WTF? Then the second plane hit the other tower and while the guy on the news was still umming and erring, I knew immediately that it was deliberate.

Mine chose each other and were ok people. Not ideal parents, they were emotionally distant which has left me with some mental garbage but they weren’t cruel, didn’t fight much, and generally tried to do the right thing.

Yeah, that’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.

Mobile Virgin Conversion Unit

I guess we had enough of our own stoner bands (or stoned-friendly bands) with the likes of Pink Floyd; Yes; Jethro Tull; Hawkwind; Ozric Tentacles; Emerson, Lake & Palmer, etc.

Though American acts like Frank Zappa and Canadian acts like Rush made inroads.

I have a letter opener made by my great uncle for my grandfather.

What makes it interesting is that my great uncle worked as a mechanic for the RAF, keeping Spitfires flying during the Battle of Britain and the letter opener is made from discarded parts from Spitfires he worked on. Not sure what the blade was, some small strut or something, I suppose, and the handle is made of different-sized washers.