Black Doves

This slipped into my inbox as a box set to watch. I liked the opening, which sucked me into a mysterious plot. Later, I realised that this series would be inscrutable, with many Killing Eve, Pulp Fiction and even Slow Horses references.

I suspect the cast were as confused as I was at the start.

Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw portray two unlikely mercenary 'spies' thrown together. I was intrigued to watch more and decided to play that game - spot the trope - through most of the series. By the third episode, I'd started to notice the often wobbly moments and the humour of another two Pulp Fiction-esque female assassins: "You still got that rocket launcher?" etc. There was even a 'wake up from drug overdose' scene straight out of Tarantino. 

It's a twisty, plot-driven comic-book style tale. Knightley played 'herself' for most of it, although she missed the part about her favourite Xmas movies when 'Love Actually (ft. Knightley)' wasn't listed. We still had a Nativity plotline, although it was more threatening than usual.

This, like Die Hard, is an Xmas movie. It had all the Xmas moments shot around a realistic portrayal of London. Well, except for the amount of shootings.

Popcorn advised.

I watched it all in one binge.

Post for XMAS?

Another example of the creeping uselessness of security measures.

I just sent three small packages by Royal Mail, logged off, but then remembered I needed to send a couple more. When I log back on, I get a password fail message. 

So I try to retype it, eventually give up, reset the password and then try to log on. "Maximum attempt exceeded."

Pah.

Not cool.

Tesla watch update

Just got the watch update for the car. An interesting, surprisingly useful set of functions. The mileage charge indicator shows up as a watch 'complication' too.  The app just turned up on my phone and then became an option for my watch.

The other new feature I like is that the car now recognises my home drive and will reverse park into it. I hope they provide these functions on the new Tesla Q when it is released.

JLR corporate ransacking

It has worked; the discussion of the new concept car produced by a flagship UK maker. The company is owned by Tata, and under the JLR moniker, it is burying the once cool brand. If you want retro, then here's an example of how it should be done...

I know, its petrol and ecologically uncool, but it was designed 50 years ago, despite this example having a bluetooth radio.

It’s kind of inevitable that the design of the newest vehicle is ultra long, with a pointless bonnet to hide an empty engine compartment.  Think of an SUV 'on steroids'. Stretched to look good outside Sénéquier. Then sack all of the people responsible. Top to bottom. They are having a laugh.

I guess it was a rush job to design it one Friday afternoon, and the main inspiration was the Batmobile, albeit in Barbie Pink or British Racing -er- Blue.

I can't imagine it handles too well, with its long wheelbase and no rear view windscreen. Batman can use it, but it seems to me redolent of corporate neglect and ultimately trashing. 

Maybe I'll reach for the Lego and try a few designs of my own.

I can always ask Harley Quinn to use the hammer.

tube

Back on the tube last week, I was musing about some changes. I remember the older tube stock, with its 'smoking' carriages, and the reveal at Leytonstone when a train arrived, and dense smoke billowed into the evening air.  Ride the carriage and get everything smoked.

Also the era of newspapers. Everyone had a paper, mainly provided free at a local station. Latterly, there was the Stannit, but before that, there was even a choice between the Evening Standard (aka Daily Mail) and the usually thinner Evening News.

Of course, that subsided with the arrival of smartphones, but a smartphone with no connectivity still doesn’t work. It was later fixed, so now everyone can browse their favorite social channels all the way to Ealing Broadway.

Ties and suits have decreased but are not entirely eliminated; hybrid styles have taken over much of the attire. Some of it is Zoom-ready for conference calls. 

There are still small tweaks in status, and many people carry A5-sized notepads. I guess they’re lighter than the once-obligatory backpack, which succeeded the briefcase. "I'm busy and have somewhere to be" is also useful for reserving spots in coffee shops.

And footwear. Gone are the shiny shoes for men. It's all trainers now or half trainers with technical uppers implying they are sporting, and with that all-important credibility logo.

terminate

Now, allegedly, a container ship can drag its anchor and sever communication cables, Putin can revise his definition of what construes a right to retaliate using nuclear force, and Ukraine can launch a bunch of British-made Storm Shadow/SCALP log range deep strike missiles into Russia. Meanwhile, US manufactured land mines are being laid all over Ukraine.

Terminal effectiveness in the jargon. 

Novel approach

 

I've been reviewing a couple of novels recently, one recently published and the other undergoing its last revisions. This process is interesting and similar to the one I use with my own novels before they fly.

As an experiment, I've decided to write a non-fiction book about novel writing based on my personal experiences. I once helped out with a book about railways for a local charity, but sadly, it never saw the light of day.

So here I am with a handsome stranger poised outside the city walls of an unknown world. There's some kind of drone in the sky, and the stranger looks like he's having a rough time.

Now, I need to think of a Non-Fiction Book structure. Something like:

Introduction

1: Laying the Foundation

2: Plot Development Mastery

3: Character Creation and Development

4: Setting and Worldbuilding

5: Finding Your Unique Voice

6: Scene Construction and Pacing

7: Overcoming Writer's Block

8: Editing and Revision Techniques

9: Navigating the Publishing Landscape

10: Marketing Your Novel and Building an Audience

Conclusion

We'll see.

The circle of scroll

 

I decided not to immediately immerse myself in a new social media system. After leaving the twits, I thought about the multifarious options but then decided... Nah. I'll just keep my old userids to avoid impersonation.

I can get most of my 'updates' from other sources, and anything particularly platform-dependent will be re-syndicated through many channels. Like those nauseous Chinese phone-video things.

So I'll be the person with few friends who doesn't spend hours chasing around after cats riding on Roombas.

The internet is still made of cats

ain't no sideshow now

Without his makeover, here's a multiple convicted felon, a chronic liar who tried to overturn the last election and unleash a violent mob on the nation’s Capitol, who calls America “a garbage can for the world,” and who threatens retribution against his political enemies. Amazingly, he won.

Millions of voters in the states that mattered most chose him anyway. His inflammatory rhetoric about invading immigrant hordes, the macho posturing against a female opponent, and his promise to boost an inflation-battered U.S. economy may sound fanciful, but it stuck in heads. 

He might have appeared as a Sideshow Bob, but his killer malevolence in his Mar-a-Lago lair, leaked slime and a loser's bile.

Like a bad dream, this creature has achieved an unthinkable resurrection. Sixty-three million Americans voted for Trump in 2016; and seventy-four million in 2020. We wait for this final count followed by his threats of retribution and revenge. 

Biden didn't help and threw Kamala Harris a hospital pass and even then didn't shut up. She had just over a hundred days, which was insufficient to get further than a confused deadlock.

I couldn't have predicted the winner's victory from the incessant social media and mainly vacuous analyses. But if America wants a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted, once-convicted huckster from New York who lives on a Florida golf course surrounded by stolen secrets, then that's what they deserve.

He's no real interest in the convictions of the G.O.P. candidate. An out liar in every possible way and one the most racist, sexist, and xenophobic titular heads in history. He'll seek pledges of personal loyalty from all of his appointments, like some movie godfather. 

And of course ensure he is released from all of his court cases, before he starts on his enemies. He can liberate  his supporters from the 6th January and use the military to dissuade protests. Anyone with a hint of 'independence' can be fired and his thinking on womens' rights are plain to see. For overseas matters, add big tariffs.  Trump thinks about the money and will kompromat into Putin's hands, where he is regarded as a useful idiot.

'retrograde with the reprobate' - doesn't fit on baseball caps though.

Devil came down to Georgia?

twitter abandoned at last

I've abandoned twitter now. It surprises me it has taken so long. The 'free speech' version has become infected with banal and often offensive tweets, many of which now vector to other time wasting platforms like tik-tok and similar.

There's no point in going to another copy platform either. I'd rather rely on the information that I select than on what a publishing bot increasingly curates.

The dilemma is that like Hotel California, I can check-out but never leave. I experienced this once on Meta, when I dropped a Facebook id which was quickly harvested by someone else. It is best to simply leave the twitter userids languishing but still under my ownership. Oh yes, and I'll keep my automatic posts to the platform, but really don't think I'll need to read it again.

And I get back so much free time.

rookie cleat mixup

 

Time was, when I knew my eggbeaters from my MT-51s. No longer the case. I needed some new cleats for my bike shoes and ordered a set online. Shimano shoes? Surely Shimano cleats? 

Bong. The ones I needed had to clip into Crank eggbeater pedals. I knew it as soon as I'd unscrewed the old ones, put the new ones in and went - click. Except it didn't go click. 

More a sort of scraping sound.

So now I've replaced the old cleats with new Crank gold cleats. The picture shows the 'before image'. More a sort of rust colour.

The new ones work perfectly. I've already done about 20 miles.