View from the Window

Now here's a surprise, it is a beautiful sunny morning outside, it is muggy away in the distance so maybe that bodes well for the rest of the day, I have even had to pull the blind down so that I can see the screen properly. The only dampener is that there seems to be a very strong wind blowing, the hollyhocks have almost reached my window now and are swaying like mad. Don't worry though, torrential rain and thunder last night.

We have our own little soap opera here in the village as no doubt all villages do, who has left who, who has been rushed to hospital, who has been barred from the pub, who has died, not in any way Jeremy Kyle material but you get the picture, normal life. But I was surprised this week by the fact that two very young lads took it upon themselves to wreck someone's home while they were away, including turning all the water taps on and killing a pet bird. I have not heard the complete story yet, only rumours but was informed the police have not interviewed the culprits so far as they are too busy. How must that make the owners feel? We have a 'village Bobby' assigned to us and several other small locale's in the area, I last saw him three years ago at a village fete showing off his car and utility belt, I think I have seen more of Batman.

 I had computer trouble again yesterday, I downloaded Windows 10 as a good Scotsman would as it was free, only to find that a week on I was having trouble with the graphics, it decided out of the blue to make parts of the screen disappear and did not recognise the second monitor. I put my vast technical knowledge to use and switched it on and off several times, got cheesed off and went back to Windows 7. My No.1 screen looked terrible so more switching on and off, then a frustrated bang on the side of the tower set it right, it's a long story. Now my second screen loses power after ten minutes, the technical term for that of course is it is *&^%$£!

Also why so many different versions of Windows? Does anyone actually use Windows to make videos, archive their photos or anything else it does worse than real programmes?

I watched 'Terminator: Genysis' last night, are you as confused as me about who is leaping where in time and what effect it has, despite being given a mini lecture on time travel every time one of the main characters spoke I am still none the wiser. Wouldn't it just be easier for the machine to kill off Sarah Connor's mum and dad? Did you also like me shout "NO!" at the end? The point of course is that despite all the technology in the robots they always work perfectly, their operating systems boot up in nanoseconds and you never see "Please Wait" in the head up display or "Restart now for upgrade to take effect" just as they are about to fire a weapon. They also have nice round numbers, you don't get T1000v.1.3.4 as the last one's didn't work so well.

Charlatan, now there is a word that is underused these days as the world is full of them. As I waited for my computer to get better I looked around the book shelves in the PO and found this "Veganist" by Kathy Freston, intrigued as the word immediately got my back up I looked inside. Here you go "...if you care about your diet and health, the earth ...the environment, animals and sustainability ...moving towards veganism ...with love and respect". Now seemingly you can do all this good work and reverse cancer, diabetes and a whole host of other things simply be eating plants, plants by the way that you shape into bacon rashers, sausages, steaks, chicken legs or make taste like bacon, sausages, steak or chicken legs. As you 'lean into' this diet you can rest assured that you are also benefiting a whole other pile of stuff like feeding the global poor, reducing climate change and increasing your spiritual awareness, where do I sign up?

A few examples of what you should be eating; Earth Balance butter, vegan cold cuts, tempeh bacon, Gardein fillet, flax pizza and my favourite Kashi Frozen Tuscan Veggie Bake, now who could resist such a repast. I could go on but enough, my dad lived into his eighties, never bothered the planet or anyone else in any way and only ever cooked chips and egg with the occasional roasted cheese scone, come to think of it, almost veganist, makes you think?

While we are on about saving the planet what about the woman who has given up on modern living and built her own 'home' no bigger than a trailer with all sorts of rubbish, oops, unloved, discarded items. It has no modern amenities like electricity or all that other stuff people have invented over the decades to make life easier and more pleasant. Now call me a cynic but I think the fact that she is allowed to park her 'home' rent free at the end of a field and that she has no job or prospects might have more to do with her lifestyle choice than saving the planet from all that junk, there I go again.

Is it just me or is the human race really not getting any smarter?