gavinf1980

From thefridayfive

1. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

I remember wanting to be a policeman; it sounded cool to me at the time.

2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far?

Probably graduating from University.

3. What is your dream job?

No idea - maybe a video game tester would be fun.

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I really have no idea; I expect in the same house, but hopefully in a higher up position within the same company where I work, and I hope to have passed one or two more taekwon-do gradings.

5. What does it take to make you happy?

Just to know that others care about me, and getting times to catch up, even briefly, with people.

1. What is one thing about you that you hate?

I can fixate on a single thing that went wrong on an otherwise good day, just that little thing that rankles me, and obsess over how I could have handled things differently in hindsight, not all the nice things.

2. What is one thing about you that you love?

I try my best to look out for others.

3. If you had to change one thing about you what would it be and why?

I'd try to be less anxious, constantly thinking about 'what if?' scenarios in the future.

4. What is one word that you would use to define yourself?

'Impulsive' - maybe; I can do things on impulse at times

5. Imagine what you would look like in a perfect world...what do you look like?

Probably like me, only less messy than I am, and I'd be able to judge situations correctly all the time, rather than spending ten minutes trying to figure them out.

I've been thinking of things that give me hope for the future today:
1) Doctor Who has been confirmed as returning in Christmas 2026; its a trivial thing, but always something I look forward to. I'm not going to be influenced by all the "Billie Piper is not really the Doctor" claims that I keep reading; hopefully Russell T Davies, or whoever takes over from him as he may be quitting won't make some completely bizarre creative choice such as making her out to be a villain or something else nonsensical.
2) As mentioned recently, my favourite gig venue is staying open, after what seems like too much of closure threats, so I'm looking forward to more visits.
3) One more thing I thought of - I was impressed to see a robot cleaning the floor of our local supermarket when I visited with Mum. Should it give me hope, and hope of what exactly? I'm not sure, but it was an interesting surprise that got our attention.

I'll give up on the October Elevation Challenge on Strava; I've managed 1,084m this month, and am nowhere near the target height.

I rewatched "Last Night in Soho" yesterday evening, and enjoyed it as much before, although I wasn't getting jumpscared quite as much.

Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Climate change" has been very much a watchword for many years, ever since the phrase replaced the old one, "global warming" for a slightly bizarre reason. However, a lot of people still deny that it is even a thing, and in his essay here, author George Marshall analyses the possible reasons.

He suggests a number of reasons for this. First off, the idea feels like it is too far into the future, far out of our lifetimes, that it shouldn't effect us. It's a similar mentality to what TV's Futurama has satirised when the characters send a giant ball of trash into space, knowing that it will become a problem for future generations long after they have passed away. More significantly, many people don't see climate change as an unavaoidable disaster, so they become apathetic. Marshall even suggests that maybe the people advocating action are the wrong people (he is implicitly critical of Al Gore, and mentions his film "An Inconvenient Truth" multiple times. He states that "we need to ENABLE FRESH, REAL VOICES, and not depend on the glib slogans of advertising agencies".

Reading this, I wondered if he was also going to be critical or religion; it is certainly true that religious groups don't talk about climate change much, and I noticed some critique of Senator Mitt Romney's denial of climate change, despite his belief in the story that led to the founding of Mormonism as a religion. He does readdress the balance with his account of a visit to a church that proved to take climate change very seriously, and even suggests that we can learn from religions, by recognising "the importance of conviction: the point at which the rational crosses into the emotional".

I enjoyed this book overall, although at times it felt a bit exhausting to read; thankfully although it at times came close to feeling like a political manifesto or public information brochure, it managed to avoid excessive amount of bias, and I did feel compelled to keep reading.



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It's been a quiet weekend for once, but I went out for lunch with family, and they came into the flat, mostly to check my plumbing. We think I might have mice in my attic ... again, I'm hoping it's not a major problem.

I'm thinking today of how I try my best to make connections with others, make others feel welcome. I bumped into the map who works in the local newspaper shop this morning; I like that he recognises me and likes to stop and say hello. I had a catch up with one of the other men at church; I'd not seen him in a while, and I remembered how I was able to make him feel welcome when he started coming, and it's always pleasing to see him come back.

On Strava, I have:
* Logged 1 hour and 6 minutes for Keep Your Cool: Eight Sleep Challenge; and
* Climbed 723m for the October Elevation Challenge.

When I sometimes feel tempted to think I've been hard done by, or even slighted, or that I've gone and made a d**k move after some minor thing, I might feel that I'm undeserving of love or friends. I'm just trying to remember today that I'm okay as I am, and that I am indeed worthy of love from others. I just need to remember that the world does not necessarily revolve around me, and also to not beat myself up over a minor incident.

I went to a church service at St Paul's with a friend last night after work; it was an interesting experience, a lot of "hear endeth the lesson" stuff, as well as a big procession of choristers at the start and end. St. Paul's is quite impressive inside; I remember looking up inside the dome and remembering just how big it is.

I went for a swim this morning; there was an old woman celebrating her 80th (as I later found out on social media), and she got in with a cake-shaped hat and had a mini-party in the water. As I left the changing room, I found it was now raining, but I did get this sight.



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On Strava, I have climbed 1,095m for the September Climbing Challenge.

There is a new photo_scavenger prompt: Short (outstanding: Month).

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the seventh novel in the Millennium series of books created by the late Stieg Larsson, with Karin Smirnoff taking over writing duties. It has a number of plot strands, primarily Lisbeth Salander taking guardianship of her niece following the kidnap of her sister-in-law. Mikael Blomqvist is in the story too, following the discontinuation of Millennium as a print magazine, and its being replaced by a podcast series. In this book, he is travelling to his daughter's wedding, which takes an eventful turn later on in the book.

I definitely wasn't in to this book as much as I was with previous novels, feels at the moment that a new writer always means a drop in quality. This is the first novel in the series to change the narrative style, so instead of the usual past tense dialogue, the entire novel is written in the present tense. I did find this a bit jarring, and the narrative felt denser than usual. I was constantly having to remind myself who the many characters were. The list at the start only covered characters who had appeared in previous novels.

One other thing I noticed was that Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomqvist were in separate storylines for most of the story, and they only seemed to meet up briefly quite late on in the storyline; this is something I hope doesn't continue in future titles.

It wasn't a terrible book, but I did find myself having to pay attention a lot more to what I had in the past, because of how much was going on. There were a few conspicuous plot mcguffins in the form of a missing disk, and also a proposal for a wind farm that led to some commentary on environmentalists such as Greta Thunberg. Karin Smirnoff managed to add a knowing easter egg for the readers at one point when Lisbeth was compared to Noomi Rapace, who has played her on screen.

I'm not sure if I will keep reading the novels; it depends mainly on how accessible I find them, and I do think that Karin Smirnoff's change in narrative style will take a lot of getting used to for me.



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One of those days when everything just quietly irritates or bothers me. My food delivery was quite late this morning, and the updates on the site had the ETA getting earlier, not updating properly. I was left to almost pace around, not able to start anything in case I got interrupted immediately.

I did visit a new coffee shop in town, but had to use my card three times before payment got processed; not a fun experience when you've got someone almost breathing down your neck and a queue forming behind you; I tend to blame myself for the errors rather than the gadget, even if someone's said there is bad internet.

I went to the dentist's and found that a man had just decided to stand in the cramped waiting room, not sit, just stand blocking all the seats. I just stood a few feet away, not in the mood for trying to squeeze past a stranger, only to have to squeeze back again. Waiting rooms are the sort of place where I prefer to avoid eye contact with people. I suppose at least my teeth seemed to be fine, and the hygienist was pleased that I'd recently changed my toothbrush head. A couple of other things that are giving me hope today are:

1. I've been researching cultural stuff for work, and have seen how "competitive socialising" seems to be becoming an increasing trend; people wanting to socialise in a different way other than just drinking a lot.

2. I've noticed that Plastic Free Morning Tea is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, which is good for the environment.

I'm going to sit down and watch England v Italy tonight.

Here's a useful mindfulness quote for today; came up in today's Daily Calm session. Reminds me of how I always think I can predict things that will happen, but often am just jumping to conclusions.

A few things to unpick here...

[Its not appropriate to call me Babes SPOILER]
I wasn't expecting a sequel of sorts to Episode 4x10: Midnight (good to see an old David Tennant clip). So, there was a returning theme of "something on your back", which was a big thing that series too. Makes me wonder just what that thing was on Aliss' back, or what the Doctor saw that shocked him so much when he looked back.

It could be the same thing that was running amok back in the Tennant episode, or maybe some other form of Alan/Al, hence the attaching itself to Belinda when it got the chance, but ending up deep in that well.

As for Mrs. Flood, it seems that she has some sort of memory-erasing effect on people, based on how the final scene went, and it did seem to be left hanging, leading me to assume that the characters from this episode are going to return later in the series.

And then there's the whole idea of the Earth being gone or forgotten about, which can only have something to do with Mrs. Flood, and what she has planned. Either the Earth will no longer exist or there will be some sort of strange memory wipe that takes place; I can't wait to find out.

The whole "Planet 6767" could have had something to do we "being at sixes and sevens" maybe?