Guided By Voices

The post title is not an allusion to paranoid schizophrenia or even the band of the same name but more of a description of what the spoken word can do to others and then, almost virally, even others beyond that. About a week ago I was making tea for my Mother and had just finished preparing it. My Mum likes sugar in her tea and always has whereas I cannot stand it although as a late teen I would take four or five teaspoons per cup. So there I was back in the kitchen preparing my own tea and making some toast. I finished doing that and then was walking to my chair to sit and enjoy my breakfast snack. I took a big gulp of tea and nearly threw up (got sick). What happened? I had put sugar in my own tea! I felt like a bit of an idiot but on reflection realised that I had distracted myself from a task that I have performed thousands of times. I ate my toast and then went and made another cup of tea, this time without sugar. The difference was amazing. It could have been one of the tastiest cups of tea I have ever had. I am beginning - somewhat paradoxically - to distract myself from the point I am trying to make. I theorised over this for a couple of days and apart from just dismissing it as absent mindedness I imagined the idea of auto-attention deficit disorder. This is conceptually a possibility but if anything the experience taught me to try and eat better so as to keep my concentration levels optimal.

I have been thinking a lot about my strategy for the coming summer and have decided not to rush into anything suddenly. Impulsiveness is a trait of those with ADD and Bipolar Disorder. I am sure that most people reading this might have heard the expression, "Many a foolish move was made in haste!" and to be certain I don't want to be foolish in my moves. I think that the impulsiveness can result from being stuck in a low period and then deciding that the best move would be to act quickly to augment the power of the new course of action. This has, as I have often found out, lead to creating situations that create further depression and disappointment which will more often than not put me in the trough of a "low" again.

In certain kinds of personal training it is common for a coach/drill instructor/teacher to create stressful situations for a trainee to test their ability to remain focused on the actual task they are performing without succumbing to the stress stimuli itself. Some variations of this kind of training use some VERY strong stress stimuli. Drawing a parallel with my own day-to-day  life I can say with confidence that stress itself - no matter how trivial - can affect performance, but then everyone knows that right?

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To return to the post title I wanted to speak about the whole "feathers gathering mud" thing. It is a bit like the childrens' game "Telephone".  I have written about this before but it is surprising that people that don't even know who you are can form very strong and sometimes, very influential ideas about WHO you are and WHAT you are about. Complete falsehoods but owing to the fact that they are delivered with persistence and fuelled by hatred they can become an accepted "truth". This is prevalent in all societies but I think that it is far more common amongst communities that were late to the table with communications technology or where the social divide is far greater. The worst of it is that lies themselves - when blended with just a dash of truth to add credence - can be very powerful things. This fact was not lost on some of the most evil people in history. Josef Goebbles (Hitler's Minister for Information) has been cited as having said that people will believe any lie provided you keep telling it. However my view is that the truth will always prevail.

I may have mentioned in a previous post about a scene in the 2011 film "Unknown" where Bruno Ganz' character 'Ernst Jurgen' says;

"In the Stasi, we had a basic principle: ask enough questions and a man who is lying will eventually change his story. But the man who tells the truth cannot change his, however unlikely his story sounds."

I truly believe this quotation to be quite brilliant, though one must remember that no-one is being interrogated and it does come from a movie. That is all I can write for now dear reader but thanks for 'tuning in'. It will be a little more than a week (though possibly less) before I can post again but I will. I will, because I must.

May your days be happy.

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Coming around again...

During the past year I have experienced a fairly hectic decline in my mood. I have had a few unpleasant things happen too but I try to look past them. It isn't any help that people that I used to be friendly with now avoid me or "don't see me" which is fine really. I think the thing that pisses me off most of all is the insincerity of it. I would prefer to be on the receiving end of honest opinion or even beyond that; politeness

In the six weeks or so since I last posted I have had WAAAAY more computer problems. I am pretty sure that I am being "sniffed" but I cannot be certain and anyone clever enough to be able to do the sniffing has got enough smarts to be able to stay in the shadows. I am pretty worried about all of this as identity theft is a reality and once someone has access to your online life then they can commit crimes by proxy. I can see this becoming a serious problem in the future that might only be able to be remedied by methods that could well encroach upon our civil liberties.

So, for now I am going to stop typing and ask that you check back in a few days. I intend to start a new 101 day adventure on the first anniversary of my previous one. Wherever you are; be happy, enjoy your days and please check back. I like being able to blog but it helps a great deal to know that my regular readers are still with me.

Best wishes to you all.