Observations on the world and its inhabitants
1. Nick Leeson was rogue trader and criminal who brought down Baring’s bank in the 1990s. 2. Nick Leeson was a derivatives trader – aka gambler (to most people). 3. Derivatives trading and gambling are good ways to lose money. 4. It is all illegal – why else would they have imprisoned him. 5. I ...
I’ve been thinking about the nature of our existence in relation to the need for money. If you don’t need money or are the type who would go ‘money isn’t everything’ – kindly leave now. Save yourself the time – really. For those who’d prefer to read on you do so at your own risk. ...
I’m of course expected to be accused of being better than thou and being arrogant in writing this post. As per usual, if one (i.e. me) makes critical observations of others, this is bound to be construed as implying I’m better than others, and therefore I’m arrogant – I know the spiel – seen it ...
The following is a conversation with someone online. At the heart of this is that I only need a simple yes or no answer to very straight forward question. I felt like Jeremy Paxman The question is: “Is TxxxRxxx regulated by a financial authority of some sort?” As you will see below I had to ...
If you’re expecting or looking for thoughts on loving cats or the love of cats, kindly depart now. I’ve been thinking about my cat and his relationship to me (and vice versa – if you please), over the last several weeks. This has led me to think about how humans interact and their relationships. I ...
This issue is explored extensively in certain Sci-Fi movies – and immediately many will have clicked on some other link, ruled by System 1 thinking. Those blessed with an innate or acquired portion of System 2 thinking may stay on a bit longer. Sci-Fi is only a stage upon which we can explore issues that ...
I’m actually not writing this for any person other than myself. But I am aware that occasionally people read what I write – and I declare now that my intention is not to educate, convince, change minds or improve the human race. Why? 1. That’s too grandiose an ambition and 2. I’m not hell-bent on ...
On the Rock, crawlers there might say, “He t’ink he smart!”. In England they might say, “He’s trying to be clever.” Basically this is about people creating a perception that is not matching up with something. It could range from twisting the truth to telling pure lies. I’m not going to go into detailed examples ...
Save your empathy and expression of concern for my unhappiness. Happiness and by extension unhappiness are not concepts I subscribe to, even if you do and insist that I must know about them – a sort of ‘bullying’ of me to obey concepts I reject. “What’s the matter now?” – you wondered. What’s disturbed my ...
Facing the existential vacuum is not everybody’s cup of tea (especially on a Sunday morning, when this is written). Sure – most ‘normal’ people will be in a building designed for religious believers, learning how great God is and re-confirming ‘his’ goodness and purpose. Instead, my thoughts this morning do quite the opposite. I’m considering ...
After 5 years of solid battle, I woke up this morning and admitted defeat. Yes – I’ve been battling against sleep for all that time. Last night my ‘biology’ directed, against all my will power, that I take to bed around midnight. I just woke up some 8.5 hours later – this morning – from ...
Bertrand Russell has had a profound effect on my thinking and outlook on life. I read a significant number of his books and philosophical essays when I was around 16 – 19. It is only, in recent years, when I overview the content of what I had read – stuff that may have slipped from ...
There must be unqualified and unconditional admission of wrongdoing based on objective facts. Expressed clarity and specificity about what the wrongdoing was. Unqualified acceptance of personal responsibility for the wrongdoing or acceptance of wrongdoing on behalf of an entity which the individual represents. The apology must be objectively perceived (i.e. to the majority of observers ...
I’ve been quite busy since September 2009, with new work and new experiences. There have been so many experiences to blog about but not in this space. I therefore spent much more time blogging at Jumbie’s Watch, My proper English on this blog has me rather restrained, which is no bad thing. At Jumbie I ...
This is no ‘reveal’. I’m going to explain why the screen name ‘Captain Walker’. The ‘avatar’ or screen icon in my profile and comments, gives something away – its a small photo of Mel Gibson from a scene in Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome. Well my nickname used to be ‘Mad Max’ back in Uni ...
Like huh? Well, one can never be 100% sure what others think of you (i.e. me). People basically don’t tell (by words) all of what they think – for umpteen reasons. So I’ve been asking myself what do others really think of me. I cannot be 100% correct either because I can never truly know ...
This question came up in discussion with someone who believed they knew me 28 years ago, for a period of about two years – and now claims to know me still. The other asserted that in our recent discussions over the last few months in live chat, that ‘Your personality is the same’ as back ...
Not often am I inspired by goodness in the human condition. Saturday 20th September 2008 was different. I bought the book "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer and came across the site: Book of Lies Soundtrack. Then I came across http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/ which then took be to songs by ‘Five for Fighting’. And then I ...
Friend o’ mine called up yesterday and asked me something about ‘how you manage or deal with grief’. Yeah grief. Well, it is one of those things you have to laugh about – and we did – in retrospect. I had an initial thought, but did not say much as he explained. This is the ...
Man, I just got off the phone to some mega-idiot! Trust me there is such a thing. I really wonder why I go on the phone at all to utility companies. Every bloody time I call one of these call-queuing things, my blood pressure goes up! Yesterday I wasted bloody 52 minutes of my time. ...
Will is the ability to direct and control one’s body and mind. Each of those underlined words is important. Will power is the strength with which one focuses the mind or controls the body. Normally we all have control and direction over some parts of our bodies and minds. This however, is not absolute. It ...
You know many of us hold logical thought as something very prised. If something does not hang together logically, we’re likely to discredit it, have doubts about it and so on. We like to think that we are logical reasonable people. And in general we avoid people who are confused and illogical – simply because ...
Yesterday something small occupied my mind. But it was something that repeatedly came to mind over the years. I got into my car and drove off as usual. About a minute down the road, I could see a tiny fly in the upper right corner of my windscreen. It was bumping its head on the ...
It’s been something I wanted to write about for some time – the feeling of wholeness. Like sometimes one of your prised objects doesn’t work well and you simply feel ‘not whole’. It could be something simple like a wrist watch. Or it could be your dishwasher. Well in the last few weeks two things ...
Sometimes I get confused using English, once I think too hard about it. Like today 22:00 I began wondering whether the possessive form of ‘one’ had an apostrophe. So I’m thinking, ” Is it ones'”? or “Is it one’s”? In fact I began to wonder how on earth I knew that ‘one’ was pronounced ‘won’. ...
