An A to Z Coronavirus observational guide. . . W

W

What Next and the World Wide Web

Yes indeed What Next. There are so many things we just don’t know that anticipating what will happen next is far from easy. After all if a vaccine is found quickly and we all get it and the virus vanishes overnight the world could look exactly like it did back at the end of 2019. And by Christmas 2020 most will have forgotten all about it as we complain about the crowds in the shops and folk panic buy toilet rolls because it’s Christmas and the shops might close for two days.  . . . But let’s not be that pessimistic.

The thing is What Happens Next is a big issue as there is already talk of partial lockdowns being maintained until next year with events and businesses where large groups of people meet possibly having to be wait even longer before they can operate normally again. The economic repercussions of Covid-19 could and almost certainly will last for years.

There is one of man’s discoveries though that has made a huge difference in a positive way and that is the World Wide Web (The Internet). It has enabled us to stay in touch with family, buy things we need online, continue to teach our kids, do our banking, continue working, stay sane by keeping our minds active, and write our blogs. OK all this was being done before the Coronavirus struck but we can truly appreciate the internet and its associated technology now. Imagine how isolated many would be if it was not there and how out of date our news of the virus, family and world events would be day to day. Although we possibly would not be scared into panic buying as most of us would be unaware that others were panic buying. And by the time we discovered folk were panic buying it would be too late as everything will have vanished . . . . . .Mmmmmmmmmm as it happened that is what happened to me even with the internet . . . . . . . DAMN.

Life inside on Lockdown 

I am lucky enough to have a nice house with a large garden so can stay sane . . . . . . . sort of.

The predictability of the predictable and parallel universes

I know it has nothing to do with the subject

As the British all head off to vote or have voted or are not voting, I was just thinking this is one of those points in the history of a nation where a parallel universe would be damn useful. You see one of the great dilemmas of the stay/leave EU referendum is that no one for sure will ever know exactly what the outcome would have been if instead of stay the leave vote won (or visa-versa although I suspect stay will win by a whisker). You see which ever option wins folk will say in a few months or years . . . . There you go I told you so. . . .  But you can only do that if you know for certain what would have happened if the opposite thing had happened, only it didn’t. . . I hope that makes sense, sort of.

History is scattered with events where a small decision here or there changes the course of world history.  Sometimes it can be something where the consequences of a simple choice cannot be predicted either way. To me the EU referendum is such a choice. We can say many things and make many assessments but if ever there was a good example of Chaos theory in practice it has to be the workings of the European Union. It looks like it is an organised structure but under the surface are a million individuals all doing there bit to make a decent living, pay all the bills, look after their families while trying to hold the whole EU thing together while the politicians and the public complain. Some are honest some have their fingers in the EU till some are efficient and some are completely incompetent, that is the way life works when lots of folk all work together in one organisation. Just look at the National Health Service. I have had more than my fair share of being poked about by the NHS in the past stitching me back together and I can say with some certainty the staff are an eclectic bunch of mixed abilities from the brilliant to the terrible.

Anyway back to the point tomorrow as we wake up and think. . .  OMG we voted to do WHAT?. . . .  don’t worry because in a parallel universe somewhere there is a you that voted the opposite way and has woken up and is thinking. . .  OMG we voted to do WHAT?. . . .  An for a brief moment in time the two universes will converge before heading off in opposite directions never to be the same again.

I would love to see the outcome of both in and out in ten years time so that I could go . . . . well I did not expect that to happen but I don’t think I will. . . Well not the same me anyway and the other me will not tell me a thing (he is as grumpy as I am)   

Ooooooooo sorry damn I got slightly distracted by things so my post is a bit late and it appears the voting is done and the win for stay now predicted . . . . . don’t you just hate the predictability of the predictable. Still in the end a bit of chaos theory will have us saying . . .   OMG WHAT?. . . . but maybe not tomorrow.        

The Consequences of 24 hour News and other News Stories

I have been pondering what I should write about in my humble little blog tonight and my mind remains blank. You see I try to write a light-hearted blog with the occasional bit of personal insight on the world and a few mad poems about odd things. But I also feel when particularly types of sad news hit the headlines it is at least slightly respectful to be a bit aware of those events and how some may feel.  

We now live (here in Britain) in a world of 24 hour news and multimedia comment and the result of all this is a situation where on TV and in cyberspace, news of terrible tragedies sit side by side with odd little stories like a cat doing a Rubik’s cube or mermaids sighted offshore in the North East of Scotland.  Our media eat these stories both big and small, important and of no consequence with equal ferocity so that with time they all blur into one thing. If you add the adverts of commercial news media then the blur can create even more extremes. I just sometimes wonder if those much younger than myself ever become desensitised to events unless they have some sort of personal implication.   I can get entirely perplexed at times when say the final of a talent show will swamp the likes of Twitter and a terrible earthquake killing hundreds on the same day can pass almost unnoticed and folk tweet OMG because a sword swallowing parrot that can sing The Ace of Spades has won X factor and not the young woman from the sausage factor. I suspect that young woman may have been daydreaming a bit and missed a certain death sausage . . . . . . . . Yes that was a major story for me and that’s for sure.

Well that’s it a little ramble from inside the mind of Rob Z Tobor. You will notice this is a small story of little consequence, but I’m waving my pointy stick at the world a bit, but in a friendly and non-aggressive way, life is too short and precious to be wasted on aggression.

As a final passing point do please try to help and be friendly to you fellow man. Remember if there is a God he will I suspect forgive mistakes but not hate, and if you think that is not right just wait until you meet God, by which time of course it may be a bit late to say sorry,           

How I never became a Hero

Today I plan to tell you a true story of a heroic nature, OK I think it was heroic because I did the heroic deed. It is an event that happened many many years ago as in a seriously long time ago when I was about twenty or there about.  At the time I was an Electro-Mechanical engineering apprentice, well either that or I had just finished my apprenticeship and I worked in a lab in a huge engineering business in one of those post war new towns. The fact it was a post war new town is important because this particular one had a network of cycle paths and footpaths that weaved about under the roads with nice wide sloping grass banks to keep the cars and pedestrians apart. All part of the optimistic design ideas for post war towns at the time.

Now living in this environment it was not uncommon when the weather was nice for me to walk home from work even though it was about a mile and a half. It was still quicker than driving due to volume of traffic. Well one particular summers evening as I was wandering under one of the pedestrian/ cycle underpasses which went under a dual carriageway a rather formally dressed chap in front of me who was just emerging out of the subway set off running like a bat out of hell. Not something you see every day and that’s for sure, well as I was a few feet or so behind him as I emerged to my left coming down the hill and bouncing out of control on the grass banks was a large truck with no driver. Luckily as I watched it heading towards me it ran up one of the grass banks stopped and then rolled backwards before starting to continue its trip down the hill. This gave me the opportunity to run up and leap into the cab before it gained too much speed and I was able to hit the foot brake to stop it just before it attempted to go under one of the pedestrian bridges. That was just as well as the truck cab was about three feet higher than the bridge and I might have got a bit squashed. Well as I sat there pondering where the handbrake was the driver turned up, apparently he had got out of his cab to ask directions and his truck set off without him. He was very panicked so I had to sit with him to get him back on the road and to the factory he was delivering too.

Once I got him there I then wandered back home thinking OOOOooo very heroic maybe I will be in the local paper looking heroic. . . Well about half an hour later the police turned up at the scene of the accident as it was visible from where I lived, so I went and said I had stopped the runaway truck and had taken it and the driver to a local factory, they then sped off without even asking my name, and that was that.

I never got to be a hero. . . and although it sounds a bit scary to tell the truth I did much scarier stuff when I worked offshore in the very early 1980’s when it was still a bit gung-ho.

But if that had happened today it would be all over YouTube and social-media and I would be able to look heroic and say . . . No it just all in a day’s work.  Being somewhat old and knackered now I suspect I would never catch a runaway truck these days and folk would point and laugh, But I did have the satisfaction at the time to note that everyone else ran screaming and panicking and I as a stubborn rebellious bloke (always was and always will be) did not.

Now this story is entirely true in every detail it all happened as I have detailed and I never became a hero, which makes you wonder just how many folk do heroic stuff and never get any recognition for it, I bet it happens most days.

Brussels, terrorism and the ramblings of an old man

Today has seen yet another terrorist act in the world this time in Brussels, but behind each of these events is a complex and often distorted set of viewpoints by those who commit these acts.  One of the great anomalies of mankind is the difference between those who have and those who have nothing. I am lucky I have a nice home and eat well and have the opportunity to learn and give my opinion. Hundreds of millions of people don’t get the same chances in life; many millions are often given little or no choice in even the basics of life.  Just look at the present state of Syria, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people are desperate to leave a country consumed by war and hate and see the rest of Europe as a possible safe place to go. Yet the rest of Europe are now looking to find ways of stopping these people arriving, with politicians justifying their reasons to refuse to help with various excuses and paying other countries to deal with the problem in order to be seen to be doing their bit to help. Events such as today's make it even harder for ordinary refugees from Syria to get to Europe as people become increasingly paranoid about the Muslims that live in Europe already.

Of course this is the very point of these bombings, they are perpetrated in order to encourage fear and hate between countries and religions which sadly appears to be working as time passes. I don’t know what that the answer is to these events as the people who undertake these terrorist acts do it because they believe they are right. Let’s face it no one is going to blow themselves up for a cause they don’t believe in.  Which brings us back to the great inequalities of the human race across the world, I can’t help but think part of the reason for extremist starts with a feeling of social injustice. The leaders of many terrorist groups prey on the vulnerable who feel pushed out of society or that society has suppressed them.  Maybe if there was less inequality  in the world it would be better but then groups like IS (ISIS or ISIL or whatever) appear to have little interest in inequality within their own group and seem to want a world based on fear and hate.

If we must have a world based on one religion and faith then in my opinion the best choice is Sikhism, it seems to tick most of the boxes to a better world. . . . . . . . .I think.

A Party Political Post involving no Zombie Poetry or Harry Potter

Dear comrades I say comrades because this is a Party Political Broadcast (post) by RATs (Radical Abstract Thinkers) or as it has been pointed out by Mr H . . . . PRATs as we are the Political Radical Abstract Thinkers. Well thank you Mr H for pointing this out to everyone in cyberspace, a note has been made on your file. 

Now the reason we are speaking (typing) to you today is that it is time I mentioned the terrible plight of the Syrian refugees who are risking all to escape their own country. Of course in an ideal world we would all welcome them with open arms and help as many as we can. But it is not a perfect world by a long way; if it was then they would probably not need to leave Syria which if it had been run fairly over the years should be a lovely country. Sadly it has been run corruptly and if you add the various wars that have taken place in recent years in the surrounding countries has been in a state of chaos for a while. 

The result is the Islamic extremist group IS (ISIL or ISIS depending on who you are) plus various other groups including the Syrian Government are involved in a complex war that is spilling over to other countries and appears to show little mercy to the ordinary people of the region.

So the ordinary folk of the region are left with the option of staying put and living in fear of death or leaving with their families and heading to Europe where there is a chance of a better life.  From their point of view the choice is simple, Europe is the land of opportunity where folk are treated fairly and everyone can achieve great things by working hard and people are not left by the wayside to starve and beg or exploited by the corrupt authorities.

As we all know the expectations of the refugees and the reality are rather different and as they enter Europe having been robbed by traffickers and putting their life on the line to get here. They then find they are now just a number in a political tussle as each of the European countries tries to avoid any commitment to help them.  Britain should do its bit and take its fair share in my opinion, as the political instability of Syria and the surrounding region has not been helped by our countries intervention in the politics of the area. 

The Prime Minister Mr Cameron has said several times now that Libya, Syria and Iraq need to find solutions, and yet he appears to do little to find one except help bomb the Extremists of IS. 

Now you might be waiting for me to propose a brilliant solution to it all and come up with a master plan no one has thought of. . . . . AH DAMN YES well sorry about that I don’t have one. But I do think Europe should do more to help those who are risking death to get here and Britain should do its bit and show we are a compassionate nation.  The Syrian refuges do not want all our benefits so they can sit about all day watching TV all they want is the opportunity to live in peace and without fear and where they can work and achieve the best for their family, as we all do.

Tomorrow will see me return to the core subject material of my blog which as we all know is gibberish Zombie Poetry and a bit of Harry Potter and his Mites (sorry Mates).

Remember Vote for PRATs  . . . . Once again many thanks for this Mr H . . .

  

THe Big Question. . . . Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party Leadership Contest

Every now and again I enter the world of politics, and I am also well known for answering Big Questions of our time, so today (if I manage to get this written in time) I will merge these two themes and deal with the upcoming Labour Party leadership Election.  As it happens I have no say in this as I am not a member of the Labour Party or any other party for that matter due to my bitter cynicism of all things political.

Now everyone here in Britain is well aware that there are four people standing for the leadership one of whom is called Jeremy Corbyn, but in other countries this news may not be important and therefore unknown. If you live in the USA where politics is generally a lot more to the right than in Britain then you might see Mr Corbyn as the child of the Devil and President Putin, this is not correct. He is it appears a rather principled chap but on the left of the political spectrum. The important point as far as I can see is that he is man of principle and stands up for what he thinks is right, OK I don’t know for sure if all his ideas are right, but he says and does what he believes is in the greater interest of the country.

Now it is interesting to ponder why he is standing for leader but I have a theory, you see Labour being Labour likes to be seen as fair, so there are four candidates for leader two women and two men.  Of these four, three are fundamentally main stream, a couple politically in the centre of the Labour Party one is to the right of the Labour Party (remember this is the part of the left. . . I think) and then there is Mr Corbyn on the left of the party. It has been said he was only proposed as a token candidate to keep the left quiet and that no one would support him and he would vanish into obscurity again as an old idealist maverick with his foolish ideas. Sadly for the establishment of the Labour party everything has back fired big time.

Yes you see society has been steadily getting more unequal over the last few years and although some will say the poor are not any worse off than they were; the point is the rich are getting much richer and gap between rich and poor continues to widen.  Well many ordinary folk who are not well off have seen a chance to vote for someone they can relate too, so many have paid their three pound to join the party in order to vote for Jeremy Corbyn the idealist left wing Maverick, which has now made the rest of the party who are all for maintaining the status quo in order to woo the middle classes and business to vote for them come the next General Election. One could argue at the cost of the principles of the Labour Party, but they say it is important to be in power or principles are pointless.  However thousands of ordinary folk are saying HANG ON if power is more important than principles then exactly why should we vote for you, I think we will all vote for that  Jeremy Corbyn the idealist Left wing Maverick.

We appear to now be getting to a point where suddenly certain folk are saying Mr Corbyn is a devil worshipping android monster from the planet Mars and keeps bees in jam jars. And once met a man who ate fish from Harrods.  So far the efforts to discredit Mr Corbyn have back fired and looking at it all from a long way off, it is not doing the Labour Party any good.

My advice is everyone stick to principles and tell those who will be voting what you stand for rather than worry about being in power, that will happen if you are a decent person and folk believe you.

Don’t politicians realise folk just don’t trust them to look after the masses rather than themselves. . . Well it appears at present there is one politician folk are prepared to trust. . . .     

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Religion and Charlie Hebdo. . . . Je Suis Charlie

As you know I have been suffering a bit with the curse of Man Flu, it is sneaky Man Flu because each time I think I am on the mend it has a habit of going AAAaaaaauuuugghhHHH. So I am sort of in a state of limbo and am keen not to cough as it is jolly sore, or laugh, but that is easy to not do as its winter and I have Man flu.

So I have been doing small tasks like strip wallpaper although it appears to be stuck on with the worlds hardiest wallpaper paste so it coming off the wall a square inch at a time using scrappers and water. NOT fun.

During the large number of breaks and cups of tea I have been watching the news. I have on more than one occasion said that the 24 hour news channels love some drama to keep them going, and here in Europe we have had the terrible events of the Paris terrorist attacks.  Now over the years I have always pondered the dilemma of terrible news because it can vary from country to country or person to person. But in Europe when a group of journalists and cartoonists are gunned down in their office by two terrorists who firmly believe they are doing the work of God, it is regarded as a terrible thing.  Not only is the death of the group sad and a huge loss to family and friends, in an attempt to scare and threaten others who might write and say similar things.  But it is an entirely futile thing to have done as in the end the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that these gunmen have tried to destroy will become stronger and the cartoons that the gunmen found so offensive have now been seen by millions more people around the world.

Now I am not a political animal I am a rather quiet middle class chap but I have a blog and write about stuff and draw the occasional picture. And as someone who lives in the West I have a degree of freedom to write and draw what I like, I have even been know to touch on the subjects of politics and religion.  However one of the key principles in the West in respect of Freedom of Speech is that it should not be used in order to attempt to stifle the Freedom of Speech of others. So when extreme groups to the right or left complain they are being oppressed by the government or who ever it is because they are using the system to try and bring about a way of life that does not allow everyone to have their say or own beliefs.

The fundamental Islamists see no right but their own, they do not appear to belief that anyone other than themselves should even live as we are all the children of the devil the great non-believers.  They appear not to use rational argument to argue their cause but a regime of fear and killing and convince young men that by doing this they will have eternal martyrdom in haven.   Well I personally think they are well and truly wrong any religion that does not treat all as equals irrespective of race colour or gender is not a good religion. The universe is seriously huge beyond the minds of most and more complex than we can image so do folk really believe that killing a group of satirical cartoonists in Paris is Gods work and will change the world. This is not religion it is hate.

I have said this a few times now but the outcome of events is unpredictable, so whether it’s a government or an individual you just can’t be sure that what you want to happen and what will happen, will be the same.  It is in the lap of the Gods and I suspect God has little time for man's idea of religion so far, maybe one day there will be a religion that actually helps bring peace to the world. . . . It seems unlikely for now though.

Je Suis Charlie

Rob Z Nostradamus. The Predictions of 2015 . . .

What would be a good way to start a new post in the New Year, well I think the best thing I could possibly do is to give you all some predictions for the year ahead. That bloke Nostradamus was a bit of a one for doing this and it never did him any harm. Well I say never there was the one incident when he did not see that large bus coming and it did sort of kill him.  

So I will firstly predict the news that the election on the 7^th May here it Britain is going to be long and very boring, because all the politicians and various media think it is very exciting. It will not be. The Liberal Democrats will loss all but 1 or 2 seats if they are lucky and it will all end in a huge muddle with the Scottish National Party and UKIP winning enough seats between them to stop either the Labour or conservatives forming a government. Which in turn brings about a shock coalition between Labour and the Conservatives for what they call, a short term government of convenience.  And confusing the masses who finally realise that you just can’t get rid of those dodgy old establishment politicians even if you don’t vote for them.

The next prediction is the sudden death of the Queen which if nothing else will take the mind of the masses off the endless bickering of politicians. However after four days of solemn music and royal life and death stories on the tele and radio some folk start demanding the return of Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing saying it is rather depressing on the tele and hey folk die.

I was planning to predict other shock horror royal stories but it may be too late now so we will ignore the other stuff.

I am predicting a heat wave this summer, but followed by heavy rain and storms in September and October that will cause problems on the railways. Yes I can see a mass rush to the seaside this summer as the sun shines for weeks on end leading to hosepipe bans and fighting in queues to buy ice cream.

Yet another well known high street shop will bite the dust claiming that it has lost out to online shopping and an unpredicted heat wave. . . (sorry but I have predicted that so no excuses).

Man will not get to Mars.

President Putin will shock the world with news that will see him wearing a large pink wig and singing Karaoke in a dodgy bar in a large naval Black Sea Port. However it will turn out to be a hoax and President Putin will look even more angry than normal at the following G20 meeting as other leaders snigger a bit.

I am also predicting world peace . . . . . .  OK I am lying I am not predicting world peace in fact I predict that the Middle East will become even more unstable and lead to further political turmoil between the East and West. Not helped by the pink wig incident.

China will go into a deep recession causing infighting among its political elite, although it will all look the same to us ordinary folk over here.

Another well known celebrity will fall from grace as their terrible habits are revealed to an unbelieving public.

The next International Environmental Summit will end in failure, but we be told that some issues have been dealt with.

The life of seagulls will not change. . . . much.

Sir Richard Attenborough. The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Loss of a Library

Sadly Sir Richard Attenborough died yesterday just before his ninety first birthday and although sad one has to say 91 is not a bad age to get too. He was rather famous but I can’t help but think that some folk are going to get him confused, because folk are not always as well informed about stuff as they should be. In order to alleviate this possible error I would just like to say I was really impressed when he did that documentary where he got to sit with all those Gorillas in the Jurassic Park out in Borneo or the like. He even once taught a Phoenix to fly, how cool is that.

And who could forget his directing in the film Gandalf, where the peaceful wizard leads his people to freedom despite the terrible ways of the Imperialists led by the terrible Darth Vader or was it Queen Victoria?

But my own personal favourite was his appearance as the Creature from the Black Lagoon in The Great Escape, Just for a short time I thought he had the German guards fooled too.

In other news the office is not the office (thats at home not work) any longer what was the library is now the office and we no longer have a library.  And what was the office is now an empty room with some stuff in it that has not been moved yet.

Ooooo and I have been playing drums to scare the grey and rain away, it might work who can tell.  

Politics and Religion and the Islamic State

Every now and again I get all serious and have a little rant about the world and its weaknesses and today is one of these days.  As we know an American photojournalist became the victim of what was called revenge by the people that killed him, who are part of the so called Islamic State.  What this has done is highlight the barbaric nature of what the group say is a religious quest for their own state.  However by saying that the death of the American was revenge says much. Revenge is not high on his list of aspirations for mankind by any god even a strict Sunni Muslin one I suspect.

I am no expert on religion but the most successful ones are those that have tolerance of others fairly high up the list, and I have long said that in my own opinion the world of Micro Gods offers the best option to a better world. The Sunni jihadists of the so called Islamic State are probably the least tolerant bunch of them all.  I suspect in the end the total lack of compassion and tolerance will be their downfall.  It amazes me that they have been able to get  funding,  but the general opinion appears to be that it comes from some of the Sunni ruled gulf states who are playing tactics with the Shia Muslim ruled Countries.  This in turn has just helped to further destabilise most of the Middle East, and as I have said before these events can not be managed they are subject to the principles of Chaos theory.  The West itself has found that out when intervention in these countries has only made the situation more complex and more violent.

It appears as far as I can tell that the Sunni jihadists of the so called Islamic State are very likely the puppets of people with their own political agenda using the religious fanaticism of this group for their own political ends. It is just very sad that the feelings and lives of the ordinary people are lost, and a man who did his bit to help the ordinary folk of this region is killed in revenge or as I suspect more in a case of spitefulness. The only thing I can hope is none of those involved in the financing or fighting of this group will ever meet their Gods.  In fact I'm fairly confident they will not.

So what is the solution, well to tell the truth I have absolutely no idea? . . . . . .But the world would be so much better if everyone showed some respect for their fellow man and tolerated the views and ideas of others.    

Malaysian Plane (flight MH17), Russia, Ukraine and Politics and Truth

its a small world

As we all know, yesterday a Malaysian Plane (flight MH17) was apparently shot down over an area of Ukraine held by the Pro Russian Ukrainians with what is thought to be a Russian supplied ground to air missile system. And although they deny it the overwhelming evidence supports this view.  One could argue it is foolish to supply such a weapon to a rag tag amateur army who have appeared to be somewhat trigger happy in recent times. The Russians however would argue that they are supporting their colleagues over the border against the puppets of the decadent western powers.

We would have to assume that this was in many ways a terrible accident and that they really did think that the plane was a Ukrainian Transport plane, but it is no less sad and appalling for that.  However what I find just as bad is that, even though Russia must know who did this they seem to blame the Kiev Government for what happened. They are saying that it happened because the Ukrainians who want closer links to the west are attacking the pro Russian Ukrainians.  Interestingly they are not saying that the Pro Russian Ukrainians did not do it, and to me President Putin statement yesterday seemed very chilled, I am glad he is not my leader, although I am not a fan of the one I have either or the potential future ones.

Wars are not nice, terrible thing have and will always happen, but it does not mean that people should not be brought to account for their actions when it is possible to do so. The innocent with no say or involvement should not die or be tortured because of the power struggles of others.  Maybe the people of power such as President Putin should consider morality a little more and be honest about events like this and tell the truth.  

I live in ever declining hope that one day the human race will be better than it presently is, 

missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and the vote in the Crimea

I have noticed two bits of news of interest lately and thought I should make my own little observations and speculations on both. The first is the Vote in Crimea (secession referendum)  about whether they should join Russia, and the second is the very sad and strange case of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

So Crimea is about to vote and decide its fate, at first glance you would say fair enough you either vote for option one .  . . . . Do you wish to rejoin the Russian federation . . . . .  Or option two. . . . . Do you wish to remain part of an independent Ukraine? You see that seems easy enough and a fair choice to find out what the people want and as most are Russian speaking it would be very likely that the pro Russian option would get most votes and the west would probably have to agree in the end.

However it appears President Putin and the Russians have panicked and just in case have given the people the following two options . . . . . . option one .  . . . . Do you wish to rejoin the Russian federation and enjoy economic success . . . . . . . . .  and option two . . . . . Do you wish to return to a state of limbo as was the case in 1990 when you were in political turmoil and had no money or friends within Europe and were running out of oil, and the rest of Ukraine will hate you. . . . . . . . Well I think once you sort of do that you make the whole vote a bit of a waste of time, it is like using torture to extract confessions and then saying there you go I told you they did it, it has no validity.

The other news is the missing plane, and there has been much speculation and both logical and mad theories about what may have happened and where it might has ended up, And I too have a theory about what might of happened.  You see I wondered if maybe it had hit a another aircraft head on and  partially destroying the pilots cabin ; in this part of the world there is always the possibility of unauthorized planes flying drugs about and the like.  It might then be possible that the pilots could have been killed or badly injured, the radio and communications destroyed but the aircraft still able to fly. Maybe the plane just keep going on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel, or someone may have even tried to turn it back towards it takeoff point to attempt to get help somehow hoping it would be picked up on radar and alert people on the ground. But it was not spotted and just carried on till it ran out of fuel. If this was the case it may have turned more than once and may never be found if it crashed into the sea

The Curse of Twitter, the A to Z and World War three

Well doesn’t time fly, it is St Davids Day today in Wales although as I am one mile over the border now I don’t see him as much. Although I will be in Wales later doing things. . . . I am writing a bit of this diary early, so it is possible things I say I am going to do will already be done and dusted by the time anyone reads this in three weeks time.

Last night I did a foolish thing indeed, something I have not done before and I suspect will not do again, I attempted to join in with a Twitter group chat all about the forthcoming blogging A to Z event. Well what can I say except it entirely scrambled my brain and made me look a mad gibbering idiot who knows nothing? OK some will I suspect nod knowingly and agree. The reason for this is simple my diary is a flurry of jumbled words that hopefully some of the time make sense, I like words even though I cant spell, type, use punctuation correctly and possibly put them together in an odd order. But Twitter is not a friend of words and punctuation it is all about short concise little bits of text that are short and to the point, and I hate that. What would Shakespeare have thought if he was limited to 140 characters (not as in folk like Hamlet or Richard the Third but as in a space or a letter or a squiggly thing). You see for my diary or any other cyber location of myself Rob Z Tobor, to have the true essence of me I need far more words.  All I can say to those who witnessed my Who? What? Why? . . . . . . .Seagulls? What again? Help? attempts at keeping up with the flurry of tweets is, I just cant think that fast . . . . . . it was hell.

I notice in the real world folk are starting to shout at one another over a place called the Crimea (part of the Ukraine), I just hope they are not doing it using Twitter or it will all go horribly wrong. Now I don’t know about you lot but only a few weeks ago if someone had shown me a map of the world and told me to point at the Crimea I would have been at a loss as to know where it was. I might have pondered North Africa or the like but I suspect I would have put in entirely in the wrong place and got it entirely the wrong shape. 

Anyway as we all know Russia have sort of moved in to save it from the nasty westernised Ukrainians who are, as the Russians have put it, are all terrible right wing fascist extremists. Well; we are like that in the West, as is plainly clear from my decadent bourgeois diary here in cyberspace. Their decision to do this appears to have surprised the governments of the west who even as I type are protesting. This slightly surprises me after all Crimea is the main strategic harbour of the entire Russian fleet and well to think they would be happy to have it run by folk they used to think of as the enemy (us) is rather silly. It is a bit like American handing Pearl Harbour over to Japan and saying you can look after it as long as you don’t mind the odd ship popping in and out. . . . . . . .  Anyway what is the worst that can happen . . . . . .World War Three . . . . . . .AH DAMN.

Maybe we should just let Russia have the Crimea back even most folk living there would be happy with that, and the rest of Ukraine can join us and complain about the Euro and weather.

The Christmas Jumper, the News, and the World

I was watching the news on the BBC a bit earlier in order to be up to date with what is happening in the world. I am not entirely convinced that we actually get to know exactly what happens in the world because news is only news if the various media companies decide it is news worthy. This would explain why a bunch of Zombies protesting outside the local college today chanting WHAT DO WE WANT . . . . . . . MORE BRAINS . . . . . . . . . . WHEN DO WE WANT THEM  . . . . . . .NOW while the college principle tries to explain that the colleges slogan of  . . . . . We have some of the Best Brains in the Country does not refer to the student canteen; is in fact not a  news worthy story. Those Media companies can see no legs in it . . . This does not mean there are no legs in brains (AH YES there are no legs in brains), it refers to a story that might run for a bit and keep the punters interested. . . . You see the link legs and run.

Anyway what I was heading towards before you lot distracted me yet again with your thoughts on what I am typing was the fact that on the news there was a story saying that the Christmas Jumper; you know the things, Santa or a Reindeer on a sledge eating elf brains while a Zombie Snowman looks on in horror realizing his dinner has been stolen from under his very nose (a carrot carved to look like the Eiffel tower) with a small child setting fire to a Christmas tree in the background and a hardy fisherman repairing his nets that are being destroyed by a large Sea Serpent called Sven on the back in fluorescent  double knit wool in tweed colours.

Hang on where was I . . . . . . AH Yes  it appears the big Christmas present this year is the Christmas Jumper and it is plainly clear why that is. You see here in the decadent West everybody now has everything, leaving almost nothing for folk to get other folk for Christmas . . . . Well almost nothing, you see the one thing no one actually has is a terrible Christmas Jumper like granny would knit back in the old days, a time when there was still loads of stuff to buy folk for Christmas, before everyone had everything.

 For a short while we use to buy folk a goat in Africa or bees in India or adopt a frog in Brazil but the thing is we cant unwrap them on Christmas day, so the idea never really caught on, as I have already said we are the decadent west and we need our bling (or Christmas Jumper as it is known this year).

All I am worried about is what happens next year YICKS.

Oooo I sprayed a thing green today and wraped a Christmas present (not a jumper) and ate some cheese and in a very short time will be heading off to the Indian Restaurant . . . 

Micro Gods, Raffles and Nelson Mandela

Today has been a bit of a stressful day well it was a stressful morning anyway, and it has to do with the well known saying . . . . God moves in Mysterious Ways . . . .  And as I have adopted a religion based on Micro Gods and there are millions of them this saying means things get seriously Mysterious. You see I was abandoned in the local village hall Friday market to sell raffle tickets to the public for the local church; well that is all well and good but it involved writing telephone numbers down while taking money and giving change, plus remembering names.  I am not good at things like this, it can be hard enough to remember who I am myself and I don’t know my telephone number yet at home, even after two years and as for my mobile telephone number I have had since I was knee high to a grass hopper and I don’t even have a remote clue. To me knowing your mobile number is silly since I never ring myself.

 I am not entirely convinced that the local vicar approves of Micro Gods and sacrificing sausages to Barbaqueuesium the Micro God of village raffles and charcoal on a temporary alter in the vestry. Anyway I got well confused and called everyone the wrong name, but I did buy someone a woolly cat (sorry hat), ate bacon and bought three small cakes, well one of them has vanished now (I ate it) so two small cakes.

While on the subject of things vanishing I notice Nelson Mandela died yesterday, he was a well thought of leader which in this day and age is rather unusual.  He had a long tough battle to get to where he was, and as far as I can tell seemed like a fair chap who did not hold grudges or put his own interests or fame and glory first, in other words much like myself. Of course my chance of becoming a countries leader are even less likely than would have seemed possible even when Mr Mandela was locked up in prison, this is how fate works. I will just have to battle away at the world in my diary and hope that the very nice Steven Spielberg chap finally gives in and pays the one hundred and twenty two pounds and fifty pence for the film rights; yes it seems like a lot but he is quite rich.

Ooooo I have played with the new camera and can take pictures that make no sense . . . . Much like myself. . . . . WELL COOL, actually it is rather cold.

Oooooo (again) the flooding was not as bad as it was predicted although if you have a flooded house it is still not nice although it is probably even more annoying when all the press turn up to photograph your home when has slipped over a cliff, poor old Mr Richard I hope he recovers . . . . . . . . Mum has just shouted IDIOT? 

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Storms, Books, Old Masters and a Morris Minor

Mr M continues to get weaker and the nurses suspect he has less than twenty four hours left to live, so it is all a little sad, but he had a jolly good run. And although he has struggled with one thing and another the last couple of years, he has done loads of things and been to loads of places in his lifetime. We did not stay too long today as his son is stopping at the hospital and other folk are popping in to see him. I have taken to drawing pictures of stuff while I am there now as Mr M was amused by them when he could see what I was up too; he was rather a good artist himself and once painted a tiny Micro Morris Minor on an old master so well that no one has ever noticed.  He always used to think of John Constable saying to the young Morris Minor driver  . . . . . HELLO sonny would you mind blowing into this Goats bladder.

I noticed on the news first thing that a huge storm has hit the Philippines with winds up to 199 miles an hour although as yet there is little news of how much destruction it has caused, but it does go to show that the big storm that the BBC were talking about that attacked the South coast of Britain was in reality merely a flesh wound. One of the perks of living in the UK is our weather may be wet, windy, cold, and sometimes a bit warm, but mainly not with grey skies and the odd bit of snow and more rain and even more rain; however our storms are fairly tame compared to other places and we tend not to get seriously extreme weather. It is strange then that I reckon us Brits complain about the weather more than anyone else, maybe knowing it can’t come back and bite us quite so badly means we can complain more.  It is like poking a kitten and a Lion with a pointy stick, OK the one is just not nice but the other is extremely silly or so I was told by the Zoo Keeper.

You may look at my little drawing (doodle) tonight and think WHAT? But I tend not to think too much about what I draw while visiting Mr M, so it may appear a little unrelated. If (as I have said many times now) you are reading the cheap paperback Diary of Rob Z Tobor bought at Kings Cross station in the three for a pound bargain basket, you will not get to see my drawings, so best to buy the illuminated limited edition with the gold leaf embossed cover sold for a modest one thousand five hundred and twenty three pounds and fifteen pence plus postage.