And Sometimes Things Do Work Out

After two weeks an order from Aldi has turned up, taken in my my neighbour, causing musch annoyance for Aldi Customer Service as Yodel and then Parcel Force refused to follow basic instructions either because they can't be bothered or they like coming out to not be able to deliver to our house, but all is good now. It amazes me that these delivery companies, with all the useful technology available, cannot sort out a time to do just a single delivery. Basically most people are likely to be in before 8AM and after 6PM so if your deliver times were based between 6 and 8 and then 6 and 10 you could give the drivers a shorter working day and reduce the number of times you have to return for failed deliveries.

This weekend I also finally got to catch up with my great friend Mike O'Brien at Mog on the Tyne the Cat Cafe in which he is involved and found out about all the issues getting it off the ground despite Council kerfuffling and of course talking about , music and lots of other stuff. There's some video and pics on my instagram feed here. 

The night was over to The Doll at The Black Bull to see the impressive Moron-o-Phonics supporting Penetration, but for the first time ever I left a gig before the band I had gone to see came on. The room was packed , and the sound was good but where I was there were several big blokes very much worse for wear from the drink. While there were no problems as such, the amount of falling over and spilt drinks gave me cause for concern so I thought it better to leave. Still I caught the complete Moron-o-Phonics and that was worth the price of admission, and I caught a minute of them here.

So it's Christmas Eve and for the first time this month I actually walked into work, and managed so photographs. The weather is mild so that makes it easier, and I listened to the Cosmic Rough Riders and Thousand Yard Stare on the way in , and December's 340K target which looked in doubt earlier in the month, will definitely be hit.

Michael Moorcock's "Swords of Corum" is extremely entertaining, and far better than the Hawkmoon / Runestaff books that I finished previously although it is still light Science Fantasy but in my opinion rather good.

The sun is shining, and that is always positive, and that just made me think of "Sunchyme" by Dario G which is an incredibly uplifting piece for this Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas everyone.

The Baltimore Stockbroker

Well the #August50 hasn't started well, so much for two posts a day, although I have a lot of time to make it up, though because August has a few weekend away , I probably only have about 25 days when I can write, so the two a day is sort of essential when I can write.

My walking has got off to a reasonable start, and last night it poured down but today looks like another bright day, that's perfect really , rain at night the sun during the day.

Though there's no direct posts about The Baltimore Stockbroker, it's something I had heard about but not thought about. It came up in the Jordan Ellenberg book an is basically about targetting people to take advantage of them. Anyone can do it, it's just whether you are enough of a git to actually do it but financial institutions and governments do it all the time. This is the full story from Mike Adams blog

"To repeat from the beginning: Suppose you received a letter from a financial advisor who told you a certain stock was going up over the next several weeks. You watched the stock, and sure enough it went up. A few weeks later that same financial advisor sent another letter to say another stock was going to go down over the following few weeks. Sure enough, as you watched, the stock did go down. Then that same financial advisor sent a third letter to tell you to watch another stock that was going to go up. Sure enough it did. With the next letter the financial advisor told you to watch another stock that was going to go up. And sure enough it did. That same financial advisor sent another six letters each time predicting correctly the direction of every stock he told you to watch – a perfect prediction ten out of ten times.

In the eleventh letter he asked for a big investment. What would you say? He had been right ten out of ten times. What the investor does not see is the total picture—the whole story. That financial advisor began sending letters to 10,240 prospects. In 5,120 he predicted the stock would go up; in the other 5,120 he predicted the stock would go down. The 5,120 to whom he sent the letter saying the stock would go down never heard from our financial advisor. Of the 5,120 to whom he said the stock would go up, 2,560 got a second letter predicting that second stock would go up and the other 2,560 got a second letter saying the second stock would go down. The 2,560 who got the letter predicting the wrong direction of the stock those people never heard from our financial advisor again. Of those who got the correct prediction, 1,280 got the third letter predicting a third stock would go up and 1,280 got a letter saying the third stock would go down. You the reader now the full story. Only 10 prospects would get letters with 10 perfect predictions. The other 10, 230 people never heard from the advisor ever again. "

So a small group of people think that the guy is a genius. The book goes on to state , quite rightly, that the improbable is highly probable because there are so many people. It's high;y improbably that you will win on the lottery or a horse race , but people do and sometimes quite handsomely. The thing is with today's speed of communication we hear about these things a lot more quickly. We have tools to help us if we so choose,  but improbabilty and  chance can always throw a spanner in the work.

Part of life is about minimising risk, and we all do that. You set out a bit earlier to get the bus that will get you to work on time, but sometoimes the bus doesn't turn up and you are still late. I try and minimise risk by building in contiongency and options to everything, but it doesn't alwys work , but actually does 99% of the time. I don't tend to miss trains or flights or be late for work or miss paying bills because I have things in place "just in case".

Sorry this is just a functional post, but I suppose the theme points toward the superb Penetration song "Life's A Gamble" . Will I do another post today? We shall see .....

Have a brilliant Thursday everybody 

Never Stop

Never Stop Having Fun

Well the last two weeks and the next two weeks for me have been and will be almost non stop. This is not a bad thing although time flies by and disappears as you try and fit everything in. Due to holidays at work we've only had half a team in, but everyone's working extra hard to make sure all runs smoothly and it's actually a pleasure to be in working with the girls and guys, who are absolutely excellent,  supportive with problems and helpful whenever you need them.

There's things we need to do before the bank holiday and I have a day and a half in hospital in the middle of it (tomorrow and Tuesday), I could have done without the overnight stay which they say is because of the ITP but they are just covering themselves and not too arsey so I'll go along with it. As I continually say the NHS is brilliant and hopefully I'll be able to play the guitar properly after the op, which would be amazing as I've never been able to play it before.

Also I am to blame for some of this time congestion as I've also fit in gigs by the Star Spangled Chestwigs, Penetration , Culture (tonight) and Bad Pollyanna (on Friday), so the latish nights are my own fault really, but wouldn't miss them for the world.

And this si one of the things about having fun and being positive, life is much better when you do things , and even better when you do things you enjoy , and even better when you do things you enjoy with friends and people you like like and love. Like I was out seeing friends on Friday and that was fantastic Paul , Fiona , Sarah , Colin  and Graham are fantastic company any day of the week, and that's just five people I'm lucky enough to have in my life.

Today I still have lots to do, but the sun is shining and the wind is blowing but that is fine, no rain at the moment. I know this week I will see many more friends, and have lots of fun , and have the odd moment where I think "I need to sleep" , but really I'd rather be doing something and enjoying myself.

The title is taken from and Echo and the Bunnymen track, so have a brilliant day everybody, my weekend is nowhere near finished and I hope yours isn't either , wherever in the world you are. Keep on smiling

A Lot of Music , Hospitals and Liverpool

This week I've been to two gigs , seen some old friends, met some new ones,  seen four bands , The Star Spangled Chestwigs, Toxic , Go Go Midgets and Penetration and had a check up at the hospital before my operation, and annoying they want me to go in the day before my op and stay overnight to check my platelet levels.

Anyway on the player is Go Go Midgets "Beneath The Valley of the UltraMidgets"  which they gave away last night free at The Three Tuns, and very good it is too.. If you check out their Facebook Page there's a lot of free downloads to enjoy.

Was discussing the best songs about Liverpool last night, so I've included mine and John Peel's favourite, the magnificent "Heart As Big As Liverpool" composed by Pete Wylie and performed by Ian Prowse who composed the second best song about Liverpool ever "Does This Train Stop On Merseyside" , another opinion shared by me and John Peel. The documentary is at the bottom of the post, very interesting and entertaining.

Liver Biopsy - Not My Body (I think You Knew That)

The reason being that I've been hit by ITP twice in my life (the last time fifteen years back after  spending a night outdoors in sub zero temperatures - so I know what the homeless have to endure on nights like that) . I pointed out I'd recently had some fairly invasive stuff for my Liver Biopsy which was done in a day , but to no avail. I do feel over caution has won out in this case as I would know if the ITP had hit as I check every day for the signs.


Anyway so I'm in hospital 18th August til the 19th of August for the op so no playing out that night (not that I ever play out of course.

Outside it's pouring down so plans to mow the lawn with take a hike tonight, which means I can watch some films. Currently watching the wonderful Hugo which is Martin Scorsese's first family film, so will finish that off tonight.

So though it's raining there's lot's of great stuff going on and the weekend is here so enjoy yourselves everyone.