39 - Opinions

I think one of the most important principles is that of freedom of speech, especially when it comes to discussing opinions on the issues of the day. All too often these days you see people being shouted down because their opinion doesn't align with what is deemed to be "correct". There is no engagement, no attempt to point out fallacies in arguments, or to try to engage to try to understand the opposite point of view. They are shut down with insults. 

To my mind, if you cannot debate a point and you resort to insults and threats to shut your opponent down you've lost the argument. 

I'll probably expand a lot more on freedom of speech in further posts, but I wanted to get this particular point down as it's an important one. 

If you disagree with things I say here. feel free to post a comment challenging me and pointing out where I've gone wrong. You never know, you might change my mind about something...

38 - Bowie

It doesn't seem like it could possibly be so long ago, but today it is four days since David Bowie died. He seemed to be one of those people that would outlast us all, or at least more realistically that he'd live a a ripe old age well in to his 90s, or even reaching 100 and getting a card from Brian... but no. All of a sudden, just a couple of days after Blackstar was released, the news came that he'd died.

Aside from his music, the one thing that always comes to mind when thinking of Bowie was his brief appearance in the film Twin Peaks; Fire Walk With Me. It's an electrifying performance, and also incredibly enigmatic. The sequence is cut in a manner to increase the confusion, and disorientate the viewer. But Bowie is just wonderful. 

So to hear a while later that he was never happy with the performance was quite a surprise. Some people apparently criticised his accent, but the accent was precisely the accent David Lynch wanted for the performance; if he had thought it was wrong, he'd have changed it. 

When asked to return for the third series of the TV show, Bowie declined, citing that as the main reason; but the thing is, at that time he'd have known he was dying, and working on ensuring Blackstar was completed... yet I still can't help but think how things would have worked out had he appeared. As the show aired, as each week passed, and Agent Jeffries kept on being mentioned, I hoped that we'd get at least a surprise cameo from Bowie. But it wasn't to be, and all we got was footage from the film - and footage without Bowie's dialogue, as he asked that it not be used because of the accent. 

Four years ago, the world was robbed of a great talent. But we should be thankful for what a great body of work we have. 

Maybe, now, Bowie is himself the starman waiting in the sky? 

37 - Positivity

Sometimes it's hard to be positive at a time when it seems the whole world is potentially falling apart, whether it's Trump's actions putting the world in danger of potentially heading in to a third world war, or climate change cooking the world, or any other method of apocalyptic way how the world could end. 

But despite this it is important to be as positive as you possibly can. 

And where possible do what you can to try to avert any potential disaster. It may be very difficult to do this, but the actions of an individual can make a difference, and that individual may be you. 

It may not be, but you never know... 

The world is what we make of it. And every single one of us has that responsibility to do the best we possibly can, not only for ourselves, but for everyone else on the planet as well. 

36 - 8

I realised earlier that already this year I have made more posts in the first week of this year than in the whole of 2018 and 2019 put together. I am making a concerted effort to write at least something every day.

Sometimes, though, it can be difficult. I'll have got to close to the end of the day without having thought of anything decent to write so I'll have to just bang out some random nonsense that's of no consequence off the top of my head and say it's a post. 

Sometimes it may, by some miracle, be a monumentally witty piece. Other times it'll end up being a load of old waffle...

...like this very post is. 

35 - Numpties

There is an increasing amount of vegetarian or vegan options in various outlets at the moment, whether it's KFC with its Quorn burger, or Greggs with the sausage rolls and steak bakes; and don't you just think that every time Piers Morgan slates their vegan options, they must rub their hands with glee at all the free publicity he hands them. Sales must shoot up. Almost makes you think he's got shares in them, or something! 

[NB, for the lawyers; Piers Morgan does not have shares in Greggs.That was a joke.]

And now Burger King are getting in on the act with their Rebel Whopper Burger. A soy based burger, with all the lovely salady accoutrements, in a toasted sesame seed bun. A treat that on the face of it sounds like a corker of a vegetarian option... 

...yet despite not containing a single meat based ingredient, the Rebel Whopper Burger is not suitable for vegetarians... why?

Because the numpties are cooking it using the same equipment as their meaty burgers so all the meat juice and fat and so on from these will seep in to the veggie burger. 

I mean, why? This is stupidity of a monumental nature. Cook the blimmin things apart from each other. Make adjustments to your cooking equipment to ensure that one cannot cross-contaminate the other. It's not rocket science. 

But, no. They just don't bother to do that, and thus ensure that any vegetarian that might have wanted to try one won't bother now as the meaty contamiments introduced in the cooking process make it totally unsuitable. 

There's no logic there at all. Might as well have not bothered with it. It's totally pointless. 

'Cos the thing is I may have been tempted away from McDonalds for this, as I'm getting a little bored of their very limited vegetarian options (all variations on coated bean chunks), but now... well, it ain't gonna happen. 

Hey... maybe McDonald's will eventually give us a vegetarian Big Mac...

34 - Nought

But all this will be for naught if the things going on in the world lead to a third world war with multiple nuke strikes...

Might make the Brexit hoo-ha seem like small potatoes in comparison. After all, what will it matter if the world is an irradiated post-apocalyptic nightmare.

Still...