ECHOES OF THE ROAD

A man walks down the street, he’s having a mid life crisis. He is feeling soft in the middle and wondering why the rest of his life is so hard. His guiding light has been lost to age and wondering who will be his role model. Well, AI, if you had AI in 1986 you could have saved yourself a whole heap of trouble writing this crappy tune! Do you get it? I wager Betty does.

I enjoy very much listening the Huberman Lab podcast. For those that have not head, Andrew Huberman is a neuro scientist whose mission is to bring zero cost scientific tools to help people understand and take action. His long form podcasts of around 2 hours really get into detail but like all good teachers there is gentle repetition of the science which helps the brain infuse it. One of the themes is how the brain loses its plasticity as you get older. It is something I have noticed if I compare myself now to 30 years ago, but I got thinking how much it this because I have been conditioned over time? Are there things I can do that do, so in my daily notes I wrote: The return to a plastic brain. Keep routines simple and minimal. Don’t take everything at face value. Started to learn one thing that will take a long time and really challenge you. Identify where your curiosity lays. Explore those curiosity paths. Avoid being an unthinking consumer. Ask yourself the motive. Respect other peo...

Various electric pulses rattle through the pink sponge network. The pulses of thoughts: fears, hopes, regrets, anticipation - running randomly. Like a flock of starlings in the evening sky preparing to roost  Observing the random interplay - the speed, strength and direction is enjoyable and frustrating in equal measure. There are fleeting moments where the flock of the thoughts seem to have uniformity only to vanish again. Individual birds continue to work finding their role and be a matter of time before there is uniformity as the flock works as one. Only then will the bird brain be fully engage.

Why do people collect? I have a passing curiosity as to why people collect things. It is often with some amusement to see the extent individuals and groups of people go to in building up their collection of  anything & everything from rocks to records from cars to cassettes. Not being much of a keeper stuff I have viewed them as collectors of ‘what ever’, and, I have to say, with some amusement. Like lots of people I have a collection of CD’s and books that I am reluctant to dispose of through sentimental attachment. Some of the attachment is those living in the moment experiences that I find are fleeting. There are handful of novels and albums that define those moments and remain sharp in my memory but I don’t go out of my way to add to it like some stamp collector. I am definitely not one of those nerds who continuously amass what ever collections - I am happy in my normality. Hang on! Hold your horses! What about… …On December 28th 1984 I visited the Argos store in Leeds and...

‘Rivit’ say the 8.2 billion frogs in the cooking pot. Most of the frogs rivit quietly getting on with their lives. But sensing the warming pot, some of the little frogs rivit a little louder saying there’s a problem. The big frogs come together and agree yes indeed it looks like there is a problem. But after a while it dawns on some of the big frogs that stopping the pot from warming is going to be uncomfortable for them and that won’t do. They croak loudly, calling out the little frogs for scare mongering and assuring all the frogs in the pot there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile the flame underneath the cooking pot burns ever more fiercely.  The push for collective action on climate change is often stymied by the way individualistic and profit-driven interests dominate, especially when a handful of powerful organizations and individuals hold such significant influence. Economic measures like carbon adjustment taxes and the development of circular economies are steps in the r...

In my early twenties I made three decisions that for the most part guided my life. These came about when I enjoyed unfettered freedom to think but also a rejection of what I now know as romantic thinking. Create opportunities. Despite attempts and disappointment, standing out from the crowd had never been in my nature and this was a moment of acceptance. If there were things I wanted to achieve, I would need to create opportunities and lean into them my way. This made me open minded but a bit of dreamer. Go with the flow. My first room mate was a positive influence, I copied some of his ways, stopped being so rigid and learnt to not be so hung up. This enabled me to me navigate an easy course but one that periodically with have me crashing, thrashing and clashing all at the same time. Particularly in situations if I felt I was being pushed around.  Keep people at arms length.  Although I am an uninteresting introvert by nature, I have always pushed myself to make personal co...

I was recently prompted by SoulCruzer’s  blog about The Dark Knight to take a discussion with Chat GTP . In fact his blog left a string dangling where I wanted to explore more of good vs bad and the grey line that is the under or otherworld. When the webmaster himself (remember the days of the webmaster?) suggested to prompt Chat GTP to take on a character, I was blown away with the discussion when I asked it to take on the persona of Charles Dickens. I took the time to converse in a manner that would be appreciated by Mr Dickens so the conversation was very immersive. I am in awe of a tool that can be used to help the thought process, to explore, rationalise and understand things that can be deeply personal. How ChatGTP was able to converse in the manner of a Victorian gent but pose such though provoking questions is beyond my comprehension. By the end of the chat, it became obvious, because of the points raised by Mr Dickens, taking the discussion further really needs to be with ...