It’s been a wet start to this month so far. I have spent too much time staring at screens this past couple of days, drives you mad I think…Having a brief fraying around the edges moment I think. Today I am a bit listless. I can’t commence on the headlight restoration today as its been to wet. Done a lot of music related stuff last few days so I am at a temporary saturation point with all that guff. I might carry on with more video editing I think.

I am too sensitive to perceived criticism and reactive to stuff and often feel threatened and sometimes I get overwhelmed. That’s due to damage I got as a kid growing up. I manage it better in the main than I used to but it never really goes away. It’s a nuisance though. I can just feel it trying to kick off but I have found the off switch on this occasion. It doesn’t always work though.I guess that this my subconscious anxiety trigger at the root of it it. Just a massive insecurity. I think even if I was successful and maybe wealthy I would still have the same demons. Sometimes I can live with them, sometimes they gatecrash and takeover the party. Then you are left with doubt and fear. It doesn’t make sense but there it is.

Today I have a headache (dodgy sinuses and a lifelong issue). It’s not helped by reading about the madness going on generally both at home in the UK and outside it.
So I am not going to mention any particular things that are bugging me as it is a very long list. Rather in particular one thing which seems to be very clear from public discourse at present is the total lack of empathy generally. I am getting way too much deja vu recently as it feels like the 70s again but not in a groovy far out prog festival hippy squatters on lentils way, but rather the those NF leaflets that were ubiquitous. So it’s an uncomfortable familiar feeling seeing mobs with union flags carrying messages of hate. It seems like something has gone every wrong starting with Brexit and the Covid lockdowns it feels to me as though I now inhabit a weird alternate universe on many days. Everybody that’s not ‘us’ is ‘them’ and the enemy to be hated, or despised or belittled. And who is the enemy? You or me perchance in some quarters it would seem judging by recent developments. And it’s everywhere now like some weird virus which the fact averse seem particularly susceptible to. So I shall lean back on a bit of scriptures (hypocritical perhaps as I am not a believer) but there are certainly a few gems in terms of how human beings could be a little bit nicer to each other generally.

Zechariah 7:10 (ESV)
Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

Leviticus 19:34 (ESV)
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

In a sense all of us are the sojourner, our time on earth is finite and we are often among strangers. We are always them to somebody else at some time so just for our own self interest it behoves us to try and at least do no harm or intend for others.
Those of you that know me may also know that my good friend Vicky Martin was an ordained church minister as well as a band mate for about 18 years and help for me at times when I was in crisis with my mental health. One thing Vicky did well was to try and build bridges between people. I am not so great at that sort of thing and perhaps rather more intolerant despite my best efforts but I salute all those that try.

A tiny drop of empathy can spread along way if you let it.

In other news I am re-working a few things like old videos that Vicky Martin made for the Delta Ladies. They are on youtube but not seen much so they will manifest on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook directly…

@dianastonemusic #lovemymusic #dianastone #violin ♬ original sound – Diana Stone

To honest I wouldn’t know about all that but hey whatever. I am still limping along, but with a few more music projects in the go now, plus my new non-music project. “Can I get my old car through the MOT cheaply” A plan has been drawn up and will commence shortly. I think it is unlikely to work but one never knows unless one tries of course. Go me hopefully.

I always wondered why the ancient greeks never got started with steam power. Heron, the great inventor of Alexandria, described in detail what is thought to be the first working steam engine. He called it an aeolipile, or “wind ball”. His design was a sealed caldron of water was placed over a heat source. As the water boiled, steam rose into the pipes and into the hollow sphere. It was considered a toy apparently. I suspect the Greeks were too busy with Wine, Philosophy, Debating, Sport and bumming each other inbetween wars. Maybe it was something to do with the heat? Who knows. At the time of writing we have rain, its very welcome.

I like this track but it has never really kicked off like some of the others.

Meanwhile at home in the good old U of K I think there is a real threat to stability in the UK now. I am not sure Labour actually knows what to do about it now. They are so desperate to hoover up votes they have put themselves in a position where many moderate Labour supporters are drifting away. The head of the UK security services has stated that currently the biggest risk to UK is Right-wing extremism still followed by influence from foreign actors like China and Russia.
All this loony anti-asylum seekers stuff being stirred up helps no one. Nor does Temu Hitler Uncle Nigel with his divisive rhetoric. Let’s not try to out fash the fash dearest labour party.
A race to see who can vibe with lowest common denominator is really not a great idea.

And what of the Donald, who knows where that is going? Stay tuned folks for the next excruciating episode.