Musings of Old Man Joe

There and back again!

writing

My wife is going to be published!

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things my mother left behind book promo
Things My Mother Left Behind

I am so excited to be saying “My wife is going to be published.”
This has been on the cards for years, ever since I have known Susan her passion has been Poetry, she has a way with words. Even the fiction she has written (not published as of yet), stories based on experiences she has had and the fact she feels it’s necessary to edit my blog posts (not this one though) HAHA!

Susan constantly surprises me with new Poetry and check out her interview with Wombwell Rainbow Series. Susan has her website FloweringInk.com where you can keep up with her new book and recently published work.
And please check out her blog Stories From the Edge of Blindness.

The Future of Creativity

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Creativity is a wonderful thing.  It gives us art, music, poetry, photography, gardening, and the list goes on. Creative people come in all shapes and sizes and in all temperaments.  They can be rude, humble, obnoxious, or shy.  They can be also be depressives who will go without shelter and food, simply to be able to express themselves creatively.  It gives their lives meaning.  I am not saying that all creative people suffer from depression.  I am saying that a lot of the artists I know do have a dark side, and this is reflected in their work.  

Does it help to have some level of depression to be creative?  Does the function of creativity lead a person to depression, or to depressive thoughts? Are we, as humans, attracted to the chaos and drama that can come with social non-conformity?  Is it the dark side of existence that we wander toward, to feed our creative minds?  

It’s part of our wiring as humans to have good days and bad days, and how that looks can depend on external factors, such as, where we live, how we look and our status in society.  Does the way we are raised provide us with different tools when dealing with depression?  When we as a society get to the stage where we can change our DNA, eradicate things like depression, are we not only changing the chemistry of our brains, but also altering the parts of our mind where creativity resides?  

What could be the function of depression as it exists with so many of us?  Does it have a function or is it just a chemical imbalance, a mind fuck, if you will?  And if, in the future, we can remove the genes that gives us these dark feelings, should we do it?  Will it create a happier society?  Is it moral to allow people in the future to be afflicted with depression if they don’t have to be?  When our genes are changed, and people have a bad day, how will they react when sadness should be the resulting emotion?  Will we be like the Eloi from H.G. Wells, “The Time Machine” (spoiler alert), devoid of emotion with a certain apathy, as they are in fact really just a food source? 

In the future, when we can gene sequence humans to be whatever we need them to be, what will creativity look like?  What is the future of creativity in a world without depression? And even scarier, will it be humans or AI that are the creatives?  

I am writing this in a café, drinking a coffee.  How long will it be before the first blog post written by an AI is posted?  Will it be about what it is like to work and live with humans?  Will it be funny?  Sad? Will it feel like a threat to other bloggers?  Will the AI truly appreciate all of the likes and comments?  

In the future, will creativity be considered an emotional plus or an impediment?  Will the darker side of creativity be considered an abnormal way of thinking and be judged as detrimental to society?  I personally think that, as people, we would find Utopia boring and probably start killing each other, taking drugs or just staying drunk all of the time, even more than we already do.  

Some of the greatest people I have met are often quite “off”, not what would be considered normal.  They have an edge that makes them interesting and fun to be with.  Some may call them crazy, but that is just personal interpretation.  Different people have different normals; that is what makes interesting conversations and relationships.  

So, what is the future of creativity?  We shall know quite soon.  

Los Angeles City Services?

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Sleeping not so Rough

Update below!

I admire using resources to make the best of any situation, and this guy was smart and used a tarp and rope to make himself a nice sleeping place.
I do feel for the thousands who are struggling because society in the United States thinks that social services to help anyone including healthcare is bloody socialism. At some point people decided that social services were too much money and now we have this problem. Self inflicted bad economics by greedy people in the 1980’s.
Of course my street guest had departed late morning and took his creation with him. What he left behind was the pole that was now dangling and was obviously a danger if people hit it!

Busted

Of course this was bad so I contacted the city using my handy 311 app and let them know what was wrong and even sent the picture above to let them know this was not safe. A blind person with a cane would not notice this metal pole dangling, or a person engrossed in the bloody phone might also get a surprise.

Well after two weeks I can honestly say the City has proved to be crap, not only has this not been fixed but the temporary fix is a joke. Not even sure the City has been out and this fix may have been done by a local who saw this and felt the urge to do something. To be honest I am surprised and thought this would have been sorted quickly under the circumstances.

kind of fixed

I was wrong!

My other question would be what function does this really have when propping up the pole. Is it dangerous that this support isn’t supporting?

Well if the pole does fall over I will take a picture and send it in, because that is the right thing to do!

Then wait!

Update January 14th 2020
Case Closed no action taken
I received an email from the city telling me how to report a damaged pole.

How to report damage to a telephone pole, wire or cable If a damaged telephone pole, wire, cable or pedestal is affecting your phone service, call us at (800) 573-1311 to report the problem. Tell us about the situation When you speak with the repair agent, you will be asked: Your name and telephone number Which services are affected — telephone, Internet How the services are affected — noisy, no dial tone It will be helpful if you can also provide: Address, directions and/or landmarks to damaged equipment Identifying numbers or marks on damaged equipment Description of equipment (Is the wire smaller or larger than a pencil?) Cause of damage — termites, lightning strike, car crash, tree limb, construction Person/company responsible (if applicable) Description of damage — leaning pole, drooping/cut wire, equipment missing door When damage likely occurred — days, weeks, months Any other information — emergency personnel on scene, additional damage imminent.

I must admit to be at a loss, the metal has not been fixed and it would seem contacting the city is a waste of time.
I actually didn’t see that coming!

Of course it’s true, I saw it on the internet!

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Sharing what?

I remember when I was living in Ireland and reading the news I would be able to watch and listen to Irish news, English news and read American news. It was great to get a perspective rather then just one news source. it’s something I will say to anyone today is read alternate news sources so you don’t exist in a news bubble.

What has happened since the 1990’s has been a revolution in social media. What I believe this has done is create a world where we/us are able to exist in a bubble we create and due to a algorithm set up by Google and Facebook we are fed articles and media to prop up the story of belief we are trying to prove to ourselves, whether it’s a fact or not.

So let’s look at say ten years of social media has achieved for us, are we particularly more sociable than we were before we had these things. I would say probably not, it’s true to keep in touch with loved ones is cheaper and easier than it was ten years ago. Is the quality of the social experience better?

I think the worst part of the whole thing is the deviation from facts, the way we no longer use trusted sources for our information. These are for myself trusted sources.

  • BBC news
  • RTE news
  • NPR news
  • Any Times newspaper

I know there are many more but my point is to read multiple sources to get a better picture. And avoid news posted on social media that is not from a trusted source. And remember opinion pieces are just that, somebodies opinion. What happens when you don’t rely on trusted sources for news?

  • Anti-vaccinations
  • Brexit
  • Alt-Right
  • Anti immigration
  • people actually don’t believe in climate change
  • Trump

I am also wary of local stations after this report on Sinclair came to light!

It’s amazing to me that in the age where we have more knowledge at our fingertips than any time in the history of our planet, that so much crap is shared and believed. The Russians from 2015 started a media campaign to influence the election in the United States. What I wonder about is why did the Russians not only want Trump to beat Hilary Clinton (who was maligned badly by the Russians through Facebook), but they also picked him among the other GOP candidates for President. As a failed business man he couldn’t get credit in the United States so it was Russian banks that financed his business schemes. Which is why the sanctions were not popular to the Trumps. Trump is a conspiracy theorist who can do great damage in the oval office, maybe that was the plan overall, to destroy the united states from the inside.

The us against them is straight out of the fascist playbook, which is also propagated by the algorithms of Facebook and Google so we see only what we want to see be it fact or not. In society today there are points of contention that were not in existence thirty years ago. This is due in part to the internet and outlets like Fox News that has led to the creation of radical views through social media.

Apple has recently opened it’s news app, I am not an Apple fan boy although I use and love their products, I try to keep an open mind to these things. But to create an app which will give us news from real sources is genius and my hope is that they will at some point allow sharing to social media to counter the effect of fake news from Russia and propaganda from Fox News & the Sinclair Group.

Peace!

Leicester Square 1984

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In the year 1984 I was working in a steakhouse just off Oxford Street, not too far from Carnaby street. I was a young man and I was out enjoying my life after a few years of hard times. I would have hard times again but that’s another story.

The Steakhouse was called The Handsel Tavern (it’s a Five Guys now), it was located on Argyle Street just off Oxford Circus Tube Station. The street level was the Bar area with a standing bar area and table seating around the perimeter, downstairs was the Steak House bit.

Toward the front on the right as you entered from the street was a food bar serving fresh cooked meals everyday. The Chef was Spanish his name was Jose. He served fresh roasted chicken with rice and veggies and goat curry. The food was the best and fed me for a couple of years on and off while I worked there. He would fill the plates when the bar closed which it did every afternoon between 3pm, and 5:30 wartime hours.
During wartime the hours were reduced ( Defense of the Realm Act August 1914), so that people getting drunk might not affect the war effort, the hours at this time just hadn’t been changed yet.

The manager of the premises was at that time a Scotsman called Brian. (I withhold last names to protect the innocent)! He had a few scams going on at the time, as most food and bar food in regular Pubs was crap then. It was later that the food gig took off in pubs, as it was extra money for the landlord before the Brewery took all the profits. So Brian would buy large bottles of vodka and whiskey to add to the the optics so that he had extra cash coming in.

I was the bar manager so I handled the cellar tasks which was primarily getting the Real Ale ready to serve. The other barmen, (no women for no reason other than there were no women. In the Argyle down the street there was a bunch of barmaids (again another story)!)
were Patrick (Jamaica), Nigel (London), Derek (Glasgow),
Eugene (Belfast, North Ireland), and Myself (Clonmel, South Ireland).
So needless to say it was a good mix, we were all friends and had a blast! There was no tipping in England and wages were not great so we received drinks from the locals and as long as it was a half pint at a time we could enjoy the evening and be sociable. And that’s the way it was, it was a social life while working.

It was always hard to keep and get dishwashers for the steakhouse downstairs. So every so often I would have to go on a trip to Leicester Square in search of a homeless person who might want a job for the evening. We paid cash and a meal, it was a good deal. In this way we helped a person down on their luck and he helped by washing the dishes for the restaurant. Of course this did lead to having some real characters working nights.

I do remember one guy was very proud I picked him for nights work, he even had a certificate stating he was legally sane. I of course told him how jealous I was as I didn’t have one myself!

I remember another sparkling character who collected all the empty drink from the glasses that came in and made himself a big glass of alcohol mix to get himself through the evening. Actually this was more common than I would care to say!

When I didn’t have to acquire a person from the streets it was still a character doing this kind of work. I had a Doctor from Africa who wasn’t licensed to practice and while he was trying to get that sorted he worked where he could as a dish washer. I had another African who was a chiefs son. He was a very proud man and used to help me by making salads. This was quite a while ago but I hope they found their happiness wherever they they looked for it.

Peace!