The world in union

As usual, the world has not been quite in union. But the world has been remarkably consistent with a global pandemic.

All around the globe we've found ourselves obliged to stay at home and not become a vector for a disease which is too contagious to do nothing about and not contagious enough for some people to believe is a real issue.

But this lockdown business is coming to an end. The governments all need us to go back to work so they can stop forking out billions to sustain further sheltering in place.

It has been predicted that it will lead to massive changes in the way businesses work - but I'm guessing in a year or two things will be back to normal.

But I uncovered this blog I'd forgotten about. Blogging superceded by Facebook.

But perhaps it's the time to go retro, and perhaps the world will go retro too. Here I am now, my future self. Not too much seems different really. Not in myself.

Village life for the future, rather than the heaving metropoli we have leant towards.

Like a wheel within a wheel

Forgot all about this blog. My life continues much as two years ago.

Unemployed again and still don't know what to do when I grow up. Pressured by the Eternal footman snickering away. Various blogs all about nothing.

Still, sometimes nice to throw a coin into the barrel and to hear it rattle.

I live!

Yes, still here. Still breathing. Lots going on in life. Why keep a blog? And an anonymous one at that. It's not anonymous enough that I could put anything here, and too anonymous for anyone to know about it.

Dear reader, what can I share with you? I'm going to look for a new job. How's that for thrilling. It doesn't much thrill me as there's very little that I want to do so I have no forward drive.

Except maybe make movies. But even that is not a drive; more of a commitment. Made my first short and enjoyed the experience. It'll be a long time before that starts paying the bills though, that's for sure.

Identity theft

There is now another shadow of future self on this blogspot - cheeky bugger. I must remember to start shredding from here on in.

My girlfriend - for that is what she seems to be now - has decided that I don't have to turn to Christ after all so we can keep seeing each other.

Is this a good thing? I'm not entirely sure. She is after all still a pretty basic Christian and everything I read seems to condemn our chances in my eyes. When I met her I had just finished reading Derren Brown's TRICKS OF THE MIND and was nodding enthusiastically at his condemnation of man's gullibility in matters religious.

Now I'm reading THE WORLD JONES MADE by Philip K Dick where a couple split due to their opposing views - him rational, her wanting to succumb to the irrational. The joy of purpose versus the pursuit of objective truth.

So, we proceed to see how we get on under the new circumstances.

Unreasonable is always so tempting

Now, I know most of my friends would never have had this problem.

You meet a girl, you get on well, enjoy her company, love her smile and want to run your hands through her hair. Only she wants you to be born again in the love of Christ.

Advice for my future self. Put down the idea, and move back from it with your hands in the air. Then turn and run, and keep running, and don't look back.

This is not an obstacle that can be ignored.

She herself describes her and her kind as peculiar - and this allows me to phrase the question that I would otherwise consider to be slightly offensive: Why do I seem to have a taste for peculiar girls?

Feeling bitter that this simply can not be any different. If I get my way then that would involve her getting hurt. If she gets her way, then...well I can only consider that would have involved me going insane, which I don't want too much. Not even for a squeeze.

I have not dealt with this properly yet. I will do tomorrow, Sunday, when....? Facing facts is not my strongest suit. I always believe there are options. And there always are options though there is a time for decisions - picking the best option and going with it.

Sometimes the best is not concrete. It is amorphous, you can't touch it or feel it's positiveness. You just have to believe it. An exercise in faith of my own.

The freedom of chains

I have now decided to take out a mobile phone contract, of sorts. As far as I understand it, I am not locked into it, but if I cancel then my Broadband contract will go up in price. This is the wily way of VirginMedia.

And without a thought I've ditched the exciting in-house entertainment that is cable TV. The first time I did that it was a terrifying decision - a crazy assault on the notion that 20th century television is a must without which I would wither and die. But I took it back later when I found that it was actually cheaper to have TV than not to (that was the wily, weird, way of Telewest, now VirginMedia).

As the proud owner of a ridiculously large phone, I thought that it was time to move on from my pay-as-you-go position and start feeling that I could occasionally make a phone call without waiting until I get to work to make free calls, as I'm surely saving enough through not having to buy toilet paper and envelopes already.

So, in effect, I've swapped the TV for 100 free minutes of calls a month. Now I've got to find people to call having carefully avoided making friends in the last few years as I hate topping up my phone. And I dropped the home phone long ago in favour of Skype, and only phone people I know very well on that as they're used to me breaking up, running out of credit, or are used to recieving silent calls when my soundcard doesn't work.

And the real nightmare of changing networks or doing anything in this age? Passwords! You speak to people that you set up an account with some years ago - "What is your memorable word?" Bugger! would probably be the best one as that's the one that pops into my head whenever I'm asked. "And the first 2 digits of your 4 number code?" They won't let me use bugger for that one.

So, determined to make a clean break from past mistakes, I decide to use a word that is memorable and I can always recall even if asked again in a year. "Lumbago," bounds out of my mouth for no apparent reason and will rest on the account now until I've completely forgotten it. Bugger!

Pat me on the back

I went to Tesco, famous for its tempting BOGOF deals, looking for bread rolls. The rolls I wanted were on Buy one get one free. And so I picked up two packs.

On getting to the counter, I realised the chances of me eating 12 bread rolls in the next two days are extremely slim, so after much dispute with self I only bought one, leaving the otherwise free pack at the supermarket.

What a struggle and how strong the pull of something free. We're slaves to this kind of thing in many ways, and that was my first blow for freedom. I do not need more of everything all the time and yet it is so seductive. Hopefully someone will buy the rolls and find a use for them.

I just hope that a bunch of young ladies in skimpy summer clothes don't come knocking on the door looking for a bread roll party and, finding a shortage of rolls here, go moseying along to the next flat. Otherwise I think I did the right thing.