Penguin – Page 4 – Fooyah

June 30 2023

Just An Annoying Ending

It’s been a while but it’s time for a rant. I’ve been thinking recently about the types of films and series that I like. They tend to feature space travel but ultimately end up being human stories. Science Fiction is just reality set off Earth. All the emotions and activities don’t really change. So, I want to posit a plot to you:

Aliens / discovered Earth creatures seem intent on destroying/enslaving/correcting humans/Earth. They justify this because they observe the terrible way humans treat each other with war and selfishness. But right at the last moment Earth is saved because humans have “love” or some other emotion or device that humans secretly produced and used because they are clever.

I have decided this is most likely an incorrect conclusion to all those stories. Humans are terrible creatures and I think the net morality of humankind is waaay over the side of the bad. Look at what we do:

We produce enough food to feed the world, but we don’t distribute it fairly.
We could solve disease problems across the world but we don’t.
We are very clearly destroying the climate of our planet, have known about it for years, but have done nothing.
We have individuals who are richer than the poorest countries.
We still have wars even though we recognised that there was a “war to end all wars”.
We look the other way from people trying to seek a better life and leave them to drown in the oceans.
We cause pain and suffering to children through adult-led organisations and yet allow them to shelter abusers – All churches and many youth organisations.

I don’t think that the feeling of love we can have for each other outweighs these things we do. I don’t think the central pillar of humanity is love. The central pillar of humanity is selfishness and power hunger. I’m not saying all people feel like that but I’m arguing the case that when observed from afar humanity is a pretty shit species. I don’t think the net result of humans being in the universe is anywhere near positive. I suspect the universe would collectively sigh with relief if an alien species decided we should be disappeared [now I’m thinking about the morality of destroying objects/things that have net negative contributions to the universe].

Maybe this is why we haven’t heard from aliens yet. They’ve seen what we’ve done and decided to shut us off from the universal trade system. We have been blackballed.

June 23 2023

The Studio Experience

The Legend and I went for a tour around the Harry Potter studios near Watford in the recent past and I thought I would add my impressions of the place here.

It was a hot day when we travelled and I was very glad that there was some form of cooling system in the buildings. Our tour started at a particular time with some small talks and a grand entrance to the Hogwarts dining room hall. I was impressed and the production and direction was impressive. They did shove us out of the hall quite quickly but I had seen enough of it by then. None of the staff were rude, they were all remarkably upbeat and chipper.

Being able to see the movie sets used in the real films was really quite amazing. I really liked the Great Hall. Some of the smaller sets were really interesting and to see the level of detail that the prop makers had achieved was amazing. Every book had proper writing all the way through and all flasks were labelled etc. Absolutely amazing.

There were plenty of animatronic beasts lurking around and the detail and complexity that went into all the beasts was second to none. I was reminded of how much effort and planning goes into making a movie like this. After the script based on a book you then have all the art work that helps make the creations come true. After the development art work there’s more development and making the animals, sets and costumes. Then there’s the main act of filming it all.

It was a curious site to see the sets built up and looking remarkably real inside but then noticing that the outside is just scaffolding with wood work. Such a simple background to a complex interior. Of the large sets on display the interior of Gringots Bank, I think, was the one that I was most impressed with. A magnificent sight of marble (fake), gold (fake) and dragons (fake). Diagon Alley was recreated along with Kings Cross Station Platform 9 3/4. The whole tour is a very impressive sight. To see these places in reality was like those dreams when you are just waking up, seemingly real and unreal at the same time.

June 16 2023

A Decent Routine

I have, for years, had activity trackers. Many years ago I started with the Jawbone Up I think. I’d met someone in Washington DC who had one and I really liked the look, design and functionality. Over time I’ve moved to Garmin devices because they are better designed. I currently have a Garmin Instinct and I really like it. I’ve probably mentioned it here before but I’m not sure I can be bothered to make the links.

The Instinct can “track” sleep. I think what it does is effectively monitor movement and pulse to decide what stage of sleep you are in. The first main stage of sleep is Deep Sleep. This is when you are absolutely whacked out and probably won’t respond to much stimulation. During this time, which ideally is around an hour your body does some magical stuff. It flushes bad stuff out of the brain that has built up during the day and it also repairs your stomach one third of which gets destroyed through the process of digesting food. After deep sleep the body will cycle through REM and sleep, maybe about an hour of each.

The above readout from my watch is practically perfect. It’s not often I have a night like this. The deep sleep is about right and then the cycles of the other forms of sleep makes a lovely pattern. Below as a contrast is an example of not-so-good sleep. You can see the poor pattern and movement around. The good sleep is reasonably rare as you can tell from the fact I wanted to write a communication about it.

June 8 2023

How Things Should Work

I’ve been thinking of having a dedicated Minecraft server for a long time. Prior to recently it has been running on my PC if and when the server is needed. I play on different platforms and while I can use the PC Server anywhere in the world moving my world to a provided external company as a server wasn’t an option as my PlayStations would not join those servers. Currently most platforms, except the PlayStation, allow connection to external servers but Sony haven’t because of reasons to do with safety? So, paying a company for a server isn’t really an option. I needed something that would work at home and independently from the PC.

I quite fancied a Raspberry Pi to do the job and there are plenty of websites out there with instructions. As long as the Pi is reasonably spec’d it should work ok and is relatively cheap to buy and cheap to run. I’ve got experience with the Pi owning two already – both for specific purposes. So I ordered a Pi to see how well it would serve me. A couple of things I noticed I guess. If you use Ubuntu you can’t use the Microsoft Ubuntu server edition because it is designed for a different chip architecture. The are various dedicated Raspbian Minecraft servers and I followed the instructions to create one. I couldn’t transfer over my current world to the Pi server as the file format was different and I’m not sure that I want to start completely again yet. So, the Pi will be used for a different project at some point.

The next option was to get a cheap PC and run Windows or Linux and operate a server compatible with my current world. I searched Amazon and Ebay for mini-PCs and ultimately landed on getting a refurbished Lenovo ThinkCenter. It’s a small box around 15cm square and about three centimetres deep. It has all the things I need. A good-enough processor, reasonable RAM and an SSD. The moving parts are minimal and the count of them is probably two – the fan and the power switch.

I ordered one from an EBay shop with plenty of good feedback. I don’t read the good feedback, I tend to read the one star reviews to see what problems I might encounter. A lot of people out there will leave low reviews for stupid reasons which are nothing to do with the product. i.e. took too long to arrive, didn’t work with my device etc. So the new device arrived promptly and I started the whole boot up, log in procedure. I always find it a little exciting when starting a new device for the first time. I logged into Windows and started to sort out the software and run updates when I got a blue screen of death. I was a little surprised but thought that maybe the update had messed something up. From that point on I would get bsod every few minutes and sometimes I couldn’t even log in to the machine. A number of the error codes suggested the memory was faulty so I got in touch with the company.

They sent me some new RAM immediately. I fitted it and the PC works very now. I have server software running and it’s accessible anywhere in the world. I have remote access to the device and have set it up so it is “locked” after start up. I’ve learnt quite a few things about Windows along the way. I have a better idea of what sort of things are possible. I can also access the files remotely so that I can back up my maps and keep all the work safe. Ultimately I gave the company a five star review on EBay. While the product was initially faulty they sorted it out quickly and it works well now.

It’s a touch annoying when setting up a new server happens to coincide with the day that Mojang release new updates for Minecraft Bedrock. I’d got the server up and running and I went to test it on the PS5 and I was told the server was out of date! Little did I know that the PS5 had updated Minecraft while I was logging in and I then had to update the server software along with updating all my devices that have Minecraft. I think one device still isn’t updated as the roll-out takes some time. I’m looking forward to playing Minecraft in those spare moments and seeing where else I can explore in my world.

There are some other things that need organising. I need to figure out where to put the Server. It’s currently in a temporary place where I can get to it and use it with ease. I’m thinking I might attach it to the underside of my PC desk so that all the nice things are close together. This causes some issues as there will be cables stretching across a currently cable-free area. So, I’ve decided to get another ethernet switch and use that to minimise the cabling required. I think it will all fit nicely and be partially hidden. Also, I can have the server displaying on one of the PC monitors if I need it without moving things around.

June 6 2023

Anyone But Them

I recently visited my ancestral home village and read through the local magazine. My parents still live in the house I grew up in and so they are known in the village and are part of the fabric I guess. Somehow this area still has a Lord Of The Manor. I honestly have no idea what this means but the locals seem to have some sort of natural deference to this person, local societies have them as their patron, and it irritates me an awful lot. Imagine some twat being given deference just because they were born into a title or even bought it. This annoys me so much about this island we live on where the ideals of meritocracy are constantly overshadowed by the rights of those entitled (literally).

I read the local magazine during the visit and I have to say I want to write to them. There was a lovely little article responding to some criticism that had been placed at the door of the local GP surgery. I didn’t see the original argument but I imagine someone was annoyed at the “service” they had received. The Practice Manager had a short response piece along with a local asking that we all be nice and understand the pressures that the NHS are under. This is all positive community stuff. The local practice needed defending and so the locals defended the practice.

My message for the residents of that village is somewhat different. I’ve looked up who represents them as a local councillor and, as you would expect, I suppose, they are pale, male and stale. A classic tory. He even has the full name of the tory party next to him, which I don’t think I’ve seen that often. The conservative and unionist party. Next I looked up the local election results for the most recent polling date. I could only find the 2019 results, for some reason the 2023 results are not on the local website. This person gained 77% of the votes cast. But the votes cast only account for a turn out of 32%.

The slightly bigger picture in that area is that the Member of Parliament is Kemi Badenoch. A tory of the worst kind and utterly useless. Their election results was 37,629 votes. A majority of 24,966. That whole area is full of tories who, by definition, are selfish. This saddens me. People who complain about the struggling local services and yet they are resoundingly a tory area. What do you expect from these government services following twelve years of austerity – a political choice? Rather than moan to the local magazine how about you actually do something and vote for a different party? Vote for change. Vote for anyone but them.

The recent local elections where I live were just as depressing. I live in a small, mostly working class, village. There are some large properties but I had hoped that overwhelmingly the village would be left leaning. I was so wrong. The results were that all three tory councillors got re-elected. The village faces threats from lack of public transport, the doctors moving and nine hundred new houses being built to more than double the size of this place. And yet most people still vote tory because they are too scared to vote for anything else. Have you looked at the labour party? They are just tory-lite but would be so much better for nearly everything. They wouldn’t be the best party to lead this country but they would certainly be better than the current bunch of shits.

June 3 2023June 8 2023

Cobbles, Company, and Cocktails

I recently had a lovely weekend with friends of over thirty years in the Belgium city of Leuven. It was a celebration of getting old for one of us and we got together for probably the first time in twelve years. We live in different ends of the country and in different countries now so getting together is just a little bit harder than meeting up at the Star Of India or King Willy IV. It’s odd but when comparing technology from now to then and the ease of keeping in touch I feel it’s amazing we ever did anything. Imagine having to phone call people and organise things “live”.

So, trains, cars and cars on trains meant that we had a weekend in Leuven. It’s a very pretty town and had a lovely atmosphere, probably aided by the fact it’s a university town. On the Saturday we just met up, found our lodgings and drank and ate. On the Sunday we ate, drank, ate and drank and somewhere in the middle of that there was a visit to a little brewery on the edge of town. It definitely was not Stella Artois which has it’s home at Leuven.

Leuven has a large pedestrian area, although there were many bicycles on the loose! The roads were nicely wide and there were statues here and there. Effectively within the main ring-road the place is safe, quiet and impressive.

At night the town is gorgeous. It’s well lit and oozes sophistication – apart from that one little street which has a McDonalds – the rest of it is lovely.

This past week I also spend some time in the UK equivalent town of history and cobbles. I went to Canterbury. The streets are thinner but just as full of tourists as Leuven. There were many eateries but not so many bars which is a shame I guess. Canterbury is a university town and also the home of christianity in the UK – not that that fact is a draw on me going there. I’ve been in the cathedral and so am not that fussed about getting inside there again.

You can see from the picture above that Canterbury does pretty well in the “cobbled streets and old buildings look” category. Maybe Leuven is a bit better as they rebuilt the whole town after the first world war and made it look like it did before!

May 21 2023

Third Or Fourth Time

So, I’ve had Covid, again. I felt utter rubbish a week ago and after a couple of days, before going back to work I decided to use one of my few covid tests. It turned out to be positive, which was a bit of a surprise. There followed five days of isolation. I got better slowly and have reached the point when I hope my viral load is low enough not to infect other people. I would say that I felt like poo for around six days. I slept a lot. Had a headache. Ached. I think I feel fine now, but am worried about some longer lasting effects. I want to have a run but I am actually quite bothered that my lungs aren’t up for it.

To pass the time I’ve been playing computer games and working through some television series. I’ve played Gran Turismo, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Minecraft Dungeons. I’ve also been flying around the world in X-Plane flight simulator. It’s an on-going project and I am flying up the eastern seaboard of the USA. I’ve just landed in Nantucket. Next is probably Boston or maybe Nova Scotia.

The television shows I’ve watched have been The Last Of Us. Which I enjoyed about fifty percent of. I’m not sure it’s as great as I had heard. I think the world gets caught up on memes a lot now. For instance I’ve not watched Tiger King or Squid Games. I’d rather wait and watch this stuff in my own time, I don’t like getting carried away with the hype. I have historically found that hyped shows and films turn out to be not good. I’ve also watched the first season of Altered Carbon, which was good looking although I needed pins and yarn to keep up with whatever the fuck was happening. Oddly in that series the best character is not the lead but a hotel.

I’ve been reading too. I spend around an hour on each activity and then circle around the things I’m doing. Adding stuff on this site is also a good distraction from time. I read Beneath the World, a Sea, by Chris Beckett and I can honestly say it was one of the most disturbing books I’ve read for a while. I will liken it to Heart Of Darkness although I am pretty sure someone else will have made that comparison before me. I really enjoyed the book and will be buying more by the same author. I’m just about to start a book about a scientific look at psychology and what pseudoscience there may be used around the world.

While doing boring house stuff I’ve been listening to podcasts and one of the main ones I’ve been enjoying is The Curious Cases Of Rutherford and Fry. It’s a short podcast covering science stuff and answering listener questions each episode. It’s a delight and the relationship between the presenters and producer is excellent. I was aware of both presenters before the podcast having read books by Rutherford and watched some TV by Fry. In a recent episode Hannah Fry asked people to download an app to their phone to help scientists model a pandemic outbreak. This freaked me the fuck out and I looked at the date of transmission and it was either December 2017 or January 2018. What the actual fuck?!

I know science has spent a lot of time looking at pandemics and how they spread. But this seemed prescient. Although, ask a thousand questions and eventually one will seem important. To think of what we’ve been through since the end of 2017 and the struggles the world has faced. How many people died because of Covid and the people who couldn’t see each other. It’s been horrific. There is a television programme associated with the science study and it’s called Contagion, because of course it is, and was broadcast or streamed on BBC4. It’s not available at the moment on iPlayer but I am definitely going to watch it. To see what happens.

May 19 2023August 9 2023

First Flight – It’s A Place

As part of my journey around the world in a flight simulator I am heading up the eastern seaboard of the USA. I’ve just left Florida and was looking for another place to land when I saw an airstrip called First Flight. This made sense when I looked on a map as it is at Kitty Hawk Sands in North Carolina. I landed at the airport and then saw something so I taxied my plane to it.

X-Plane - I Went There — X-Plane – I Went There

Hopefully the plane has off-road capability. After the flight I looked this stuff up and it’s all monuments to the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. I’m impressed with the scenery in the simulator. The only thing it doesn’t get right is the grass being a shit colour instead of green.

I’m slightly amused by the monument as there is a road in a circle around it so you don’t have to walk around the thing. Just park up somewhere and see it from a distance.

I landed on runway 21 and then taxied up to the monument which was a bit cheeky really. My next flight is going to be over Norfolk Navy base and then maybe on to Washington DC to see what the scenery there looks like. I don’t think it’s going to be too long before I’m back home and at RAF valley where this thing started.

May 18 2023May 19 2023

Ron DeSantis’ Florida

As part of my around-the-world tour I have made it to Florida. Currently, the state is suffering from what we would call – WLS – or wanker leader syndrome. It’s a shame really. I really liked my time there at the Kennedy Space Center, but I don’t think I’d want to visit now. Other places with more liberal laws can have my money.

Nasa VAB - Kennedy Space Centre — Nasa VAB – Kennedy Space Centre

May 17 2023June 8 2023

It’s Gotta Hurt

I was playing some Team Rumble mode Fortnite the other day trying to get headshots with an assault rifle for some stupid quest. Then I got Thundersticked.

I died shortly after that. But not from the stick through the chest!!

May 14 2023August 9 2023

Rendition Flight

I’m flying around the world in my Flight Sim – X-Plane. There are communications giving my progress, but I’m in the Caribbean at the moment heading to that hellscape that is Florida. I think my last stop before USA [again] is Havana. But, and this is the most important bit, I landed at Guantanamo Bay air station from the Turks and Caicos. I was in a little private jet and somehow it seemed fitting to land there and then depart quite quickly. I left my cargo there to be abused of process and tortured.

Tripping over Cuba — Aircraft flying over Cuba. Heading to Havana.

The things the “west” have done over the last thirty years distress me immensely. I have a suspicion that if I looked at most of history I would find that it’s all rather terrible and the “west” has pretty much fucked everything up. Anyway, onto Florida where the current governor has banned medical help for women and trans people because – fuck you. I don’t understand people full of hate.

May 8 2023

Conflicted

I recently found out that I will be getting a medal for the coronation that took place two days ago as I write this. I already have a jubilee medal and the requirements were very similar – basically have been involved for more than five years. These medals spark some very uncomfortable feelings in me. I am a republican and so wearing these seems to signal my appreciation of the monarchy and all they stand for. I haven’t really done anything to deserve the medal. No one died, no one fought, I haven’t contributed to the country any more than in my little corner of the globe. I don’t feel I deserve a medal when compared to members of the armed forces who have most definitely earnt them.

There are other very strong feelings and thoughts about the history of this country and the medals we give out. For instance, if you are “recognised” you might receive an OBE. This is something along the lines of Order of the British Empire. The British Empire. Still, in 2023. Britain banging on about the Empire. The Empire – the forced colonialisation of most of the world. The death and slavery caused by the Empire is something to be atoned for. The Empire was a racist march over lands used by others to steal and enrich this country. The current wealth of the country owes itself to the racism and wankership of our ancestors. Britain pillaged the world for it’s own gain and now it likes to stand on its crumbling step calling out others for being a little naughty.

The coronation puts on show all of the things that annoy me. A hereditary system of governance, plenty of religion, racists [mainly the current government but also most institutions], stupid symbolism, overt displays of stolen wealth, pomp and ceremony as if that makes a difference. What a load of shit.

So I am conflicted. The cognitive dissonance I employ is strong. Fortunately I only need to wear the medals two or three times a year. I will. But not as an endorsement, as a symbol of the recognition of my time spent messing around in the CCF.

May 6 2023

Just Another List

I’ve always enjoyed playing computer/console type games. Ever since the classic Commodore 64 with Chuckie Egg and Manic Miner. So, here’s some of the recent games I am enjoying:

Fortnite
Minecraft
Gran Turismo
Minecraft Dungeons
X-Plane

I tend to have quite a bit of imposter syndrome so I think if I was asked I would say that I’m not a gamer. But then I have nearly 800 hours on Minecraft so maybe I am.

April 27 2023April 27 2023

Trying To Get Fit [Again]

I’ve had a pretty rubbish time, health and fitness wise, since November so I’m trying my best to get back into running and also getting fitter. I need to lose some mass and the running will get easier if I do that. Currently I can’t run up the Downs and so that is my aim. To lose enough weight to make my fitness enough to run up the Downs and back down again. Today I ran the furthest I’ve done for ages. It felt good but it fucked me up – I ache and feel so tired!

I will keep going. This week has seen a bit of a turn around in motivation.

December 19 2022December 19 2022

This Is The End

I think I am coming to the conclusion of this website experiment. Current feelings are that I will end this site. I will cancel my hosting service. It is reasonably likely I will also delete my twitter account. I think it’s time.