Day 643, Death of the Bulb

Death of the daylight Biobulb.

I have no idea how many hours this Ecozone daylight bulb has been used for but it has just silently failed.

Fortunately there was an identical replacement readily to hand, and bloody hell is it bright.  The old bulb had obviously lost some of daylight quality, but at such a rate that the change was imperceptible to us humans.

Slow change, who'd a thunk that that was still a thing.*

* Who'da thunk?

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Day 642, Do It Yourself Face

This is the image we construct for others.

We choose our costume for the stage and the backstage.

Our actions directed by props.

In social settings we might choose our props and stage too.

We adjust to the settings we are offered.

And all who take part implicitly agree the definition of the situation.*

* Very loosely paraphrasing Erving Goffman.



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Day 641, Idle Doodles

At home with the Idle Doodles, a new multi-part drama from BBC East Kilbride.

I'm on the edge of my seat I really am.

This promises to be an excoriating exposé on the hairstyles of the rich and famous.

It will be aired every third Tuesday in months containing an odd number of letters, rather like QIXL is now.

Here's a sample storyboard found under a pillow on the Caledonian Sleeper train during the stop at Watford Gap.

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Day 640, Broken windows

Once upon a time, in decades now edited from the cerebral cortex of those that spent the intervening decades drinking, there used to be more of these etched windows.

Those windows have been broken, swept away, and lost.

I had a dream.  And if dreams are a representation of our fears and concerns then I'm rather worried about the people I might see on my walk to work.  The concern isn't just that they are all government agents milling around with the pretence of being ordinary employees.  Government agents are easy to deal with.  But there is also a concern that they will be coming to get us, and that could be bad.

Coming to get us for some reason, I have no idea what the reason or why.

But when they come to get us they will have technology.  Clunky, JCB-like technology.  Excavator and digger technology that has extendable grabbers that can smash windows, go round corners, see in infra-red and ultra-violet, and detect smell.

I hid under the bath after filling it with cold water and tried not to fart.  But I have no idea if that worked as the alarm went off and the dream ended.

I walked a different route to work, just in case.  But tomorrow, watch out, if anything untoward happens and triggers me I may have to pretend you don't exist.

Thank you for your understanding.

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Day 639, Pokémon S10

Herds of people, everywhere, staring at their phones.

A Dad, an Uncle and a Grandad, all occupied with finding the Pokémon.

Kids in tow, playing with litter, a polystyrene box, a shrub, some dog muck, no interest in it at all.

A Mother, with kids, as above, not interested.

A family, more of the above, not interested.

It must be good, it gets them out of the house.

Somewhere where the kids can safely be ignored, in public, with the added pretence that it is a family activity.

I can see why it is so popular.*

* Nintendo have a plan for you all, you will be assimilated.


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Day 638, Summary Justice

Out here in the boonies we don't put up with behaviour outside of the norm.  We are quick to act, and punishment follows hard on the heels of an offence.

In Haddock County the Sheriff and Mayor swiftly deal with any problems.

You might say we are not tolerant, but the word 'tolerant' is duplicitous.  You tolerate something but you don't accept it.  It allows the deception of believing you are being progressive, whereas it's just a filter through which to hide your disapproval, it's a lie.*

We aren't like that.  Our outlook is plain and honest, and we make sure we express it in no-nonsense black and white terms.

We don't have time for nuanced arguments.  It is time for plain speaking.

You are either with us, or against us.

The decision has been made.  So shut up, or ship out.**

Otherwise you might end up as a warning to others, hung out, attached to a street sign.

But the Haddock County weather is always pretty good, so maybe it won't be so bad.

Summery justice.***

* Tolerance - a rung on the ladder of acceptance.
** "It's over, done, stop going on about it now."
*** The lengths some people will go to for a crap pun - I'm not aware of any events outlined here being the norm in Crosspool, wherever that is.


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Day 637, Smile!

Smiling is good, it brings out the best in yourself and others.

Let's all take this absolutely great advice and smile, regardless of whether we have any dog crap or whether we are on CCTV.

I'm not really sure the CCTV bit needs an exclamation mark though, we are mostly on it already, it's no big deal.  But the bit about taking your dog crap home, yes, I'm all in favour of exclamation marks there, it makes all the difference - If only more people had done that then maybe the options for the Tory front bench would have been slightly less ridiculous.*

* What I'm saying there is that there is a lot of crap on the Tory front bench, I wasn't really expecting to have to explain that, but hey...


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