The Struggle – 21st January 2022

Heartbreak is an old friend
Let the constant struggle kill you
Advice you don’t want to hear
Will make your life’s meaning clear
This is a process, not an event
Never gain what you wish for
Make it clear in your mind
There’s no thing for you to find


The poverty that I should be concerned and is the hardest for me, is that of giving up my own plans, ideas, opinions and dreams.

Vivian Warren

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to find the catch for my wallet. It was in the pocket of my purple pants.

Freedom Trap – 20th January 2022

Build a wall to keep out the sea
And a roof to keep out the rain
Stop the sun from getting in
And never see the weather again
Freedom means nothing to the agoraphobe
We’re either trapped within big or small
The measure exists inside our minds
And we help to build that wall


The misery that oppresses you lies not in your profession but in yourself!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Gratitude Journal

I’m so happy and grateful for our big palm trees that provide hours of entertainment as Tangmo loves to play with the old fallen fronds. I don’t know why!

Happy Days – 19th January 2022

A couple of quotes from Samuel Beckett’s ‘Happy Days’. As I was reading the bizarre scenario of the play I had, perhaps, a false reminiscence of seeing this play on TV when I was young, being intrigued and excited by it. Whether I did or not is beside the point. In my mind, it now happened. I found an old dodgy video online of the play and it is almost exactly as I imagined. I didn’t watch it all as I don’t want to spoil the idea of it in my head. I will watch his other plays that I found though – unless I end up finding the books first.


Resigned

Sigh away all of your expectation
Lost in your thought of resignation
Accepting as a gift, a pleasure
Here is now, and made to measure

In My Hole

So little to say, so little to do
A mindless curiosity within
So afraid of being found out
Who am I? What do I bring?
Words were spoken that said it all
Tho’ not a single truth was divulged
Here, in my whole, with my bag
I am henceforth forever indulged

18th Oct 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – Happy days


We’re going up the staircase to our best work.

Billy Oppenheimer

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the lip salve to help keep my lips moist. How many people are involved in making and distributing that? Thank you all!

Furious G – 18th January 2022

You said you loved me
And wanted me to grow
That’s just what I did
So that soon I would know
You never really believed it
Your words were purely fake
To make yourself feel superior
In the image that you make
The things you can’t control
Frustrating you no end
Face your rejection, unless
To your will, they bend
Empty words now revealed
You’ve thrown off your disguise
Shown for what you really are
As your true colour flies
Carry on manipulating
Those cast under your spell
But it’s a conditional love
Where the stress begins to tell
Already old before your time
One day you’ll walk alone
Leaving friends to wonder why
Your heart was filled with stone


Most neuroses can be traced to the unhealthy habit of wallowing in the troubles of five billion strangers.

Jubal, A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to find new workout apps that I can use for my mornings. Slowly starting to exercise more parts of my body.

Memories Remain – 17th January 2022

A bloodied book lies open
On stained sheets
A laptop locked from prying eyes
A still-warm seat
The dank smell of cigarettes
Hangs on the curtains
A tumbler of gin spices the nose
A rusty brown-edged mirror
Reflects the world inside
No moving pictures
Memories remain quiet here
A silent overwhelming
A sharpened pencil
Two elastic bands and a comb
Knocked to the floor
A story happened here
That’s happening no more


If you yearn for power, quickly lay honesty aside, and train yourself in the art of concealing your intentions.

Robert Greene, Daily Laws List

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have Amy’s old iPhone to learn how to use. It’s been an interesting exercise to switch from Android.

Army Of Snakes – 16th January 2022

We know it’s fire before walking into it
But we walk into it anyway
That sweet-talking tongue with those devil words
Are the mark of Satan at play
Whilst thinking we’re ready to join the game
We’re not ready, yesterday or today
Tomorrow is set aside for self-reflection
Then to get the hell out of the way

15th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – lithe


Plastic – the quintessential American material.

Jeanette Cooperman

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for another relaxing massage yesterday followed by a delicious lunch by a lake with Nut and Bruno

Fatman report

The Nail – 15th January 2022

Outstanding achievement award
All goals met and all points scored
But being the best
Separates the rest
The nail gets hammered as reward
Punished for not playing along
Subscribe to strive to belong
It’s a constant battle
Fighting the cattle
A nail stuck is seen as wrong
Maintain a smile and never frown
No pinks and yellows, only brown
If you use your mind
You soon will find
A nail stood out gets hammered down


The laughter of fools cannot wound the wise.

Judge Death, 2000AD

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to feel pretty good on little sleep this morning. Last night I stayed up until past midnight, reading articles and comics. It felt good.

No List – 14th January 2022

I got a resolution for you
Do little, do less, do nothing
Unfocus, unwind, chase nought
See what results that will bring
Success is for the losers
Stuck forever within the grind
Missing out is my success
And gives me peace of mind


As you approach the same age as your parents when they had you, you gain great empathy for them, realising that like you, they were just kids trying to figure it all out along the way.

Cole Schafer

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be able to watch my students mature and improve their learning. I’m grateful to be part of that journey with them.

Eggs Of Evolution – 13th January 2022

We are mutating faster than ever
Elongated thumbs and extended necks
Are we becoming more stupid or clever
As we homogenise into a single sex?
Reversal has never been possible
The eggs have already been fried
So we must hold ourselves responsible
And measure all the things we’ve tried


Paradoxically or not, great ideas come more easily from people who are not paid to have them.

Iain McGilchrist

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that my body tells me when to slow down and that I am able to rest when I want.

Man Lives In Fear – 12th January 2022

The Woman’s Era has been dawning
For more than a hundred years
Held back by the arms of man
And his resistant fears

Equality means inclusion
And ending this fickle game
To treat each other as human
To see each other the same

Embrace all our differences
Enrich our lives together
For the sake of all humanity
Wherever, whoever, whenever

Submitted to WDYS #228


Without urgency or panic, make the necessary time and make much of that time.

Mason Currey

My midweek chill was rudely interrupted last night when I suddenly lost my energy and good feeling. I was so exhausted and feeling dizzy and sick that I went to bed at around 7pm and was soon asleep. In the night, I felt hot and I’m also feeling hot now, though the temperature check just said 36.5 for me and the crappy ATK I bought shows a very faint line that I’m OK. Difficult to say if it worked or not.

Anyway, I woke up not feeling too bad, still a slight headache and not 100% but ok. When I read my messages, I had to cover Dylan’s class this morning too – which is OK but meant I was teaching all morning. I’m going to dash off now to Fascino to buy a different ATK and will check again tonight. I don’t really want Covid right now as it will fuck up all Amy’s plans. Faaaar out.

I’m following this 12-step course of creating new habits, this is from James Clear, whose book, Atomic Habits, I’ve read and used to some degree. I’ve developed many good habits already and considering what I should do to create a new one. I’ve been good at exercising, studying Thai, learning guitar and those things do take up a bunch of my time already.

One thing that I do want to get back to, is learning Ableton and using the keyboard I bought and to create music. Before I create music, I really need to understand how these things work and hold together. An early step in forming this habit is to make a two-minute rule, a very simplified version of just starting the habit, not necessarily completing anything. So now I want to figure out what I can do to get down to a simple two-minute rule so that I can start forming this. I think I need to have the keyboard set up and Ableton open and ready to go, maybe then, just study one part of the manual for two minutes and then begin to understand it well.

I need to fit this in with my routine in the evening, which is usually to write a blog entry or two, use Yousician for at least ten minutes, play guitar to some songs with Capo, which can take up to 45 minutes, after that, I usually go inside and watch some TV so that I can wind down.

I’m still not quite happy with my set-up in my room and don’t feel quite comfortable in there. Clear some space? Rearrange again? It’s quite a good working environment for all the things I’m doing but some days I just don’t want to go in there! I’ll figure it out I guess.

18th Dec 2025 – I still haven’t figured this out. I still have many days where I just don’t feel like going to my room. Maybe I have set it up in my mind that it is like my old bedroom, a safe space away from the world, and somehow it doesn’t quite live up to that expectation. The Ableton keyboard has been sitting on the desk since this entry and has collected dust for most of the time. Perhaps reading this today will give me some incentive to get back to it.