Winston Smith

Today is a brand new day and I'm going to treat it as such. I plan to get my all of my stuff organised on an external encrypted hard drive. This will be my life. Ok so I'm typing here into the cloud, but I really am thinking about ditching it all together. I've also created a separate anonymous twitter account. I'm really hating having to have my real identity online. I really preferred the days when I had a user handle, not because I was up to no good. Quite the opposite more often. I now hate...

That is a pretty good question. I've been becoming more increasingly introvert and private in my digital life. I'm reigning back from social media almost entirely. Instagram has gone, facebook I don't use anymore and I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of Twitter. Although here I am publishing things to the web. I will do this in a more anonymous way in the future. It's nice to express myself in words and I love the feeling of just me and a keyboard, a blank white screen. It's a pleasure just ...

Up early today 0730 and I'm typing away. I updated my blogger profile: Born and live in England. I've always been a writer and photographer. In early 2019 I decided to put it all in blogspot. I hope they don't kill the platform. I write about everything that is on my mind. It's got to be better here than in my head or a bit of dross on Twitter. I'm not sure I'm even gonna use blogger anymore. I just may self host some text files. That always seems a bit easier. It's absolutely pissing it ...

0740 up with a coffee and writing. This is almost becoming a ritual. I'm sure it's one of my old buddies birthdays today, I can't remember who. I'm a bit rubbish like that. I changed the blog text font to Courier. I don't know why I like to write in this font so much, I just do. It's not a readable as other non-monospace fonts, but I just like it. Maslow's Heierarchy of Needs I've been thinking a bit this morning as I've woken up about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and where I am on the pyramid....

0740 up with a coffee and writing. This is almost becoming a ritual. I'm sure it's one of my old buddies birthdays today, I can't remember who. I'm a bit rubbish like that. I changed the blog text font to Courier. I don't know why I like to write in this font so much, I just do. It's not a readable as other non-monospace fonts, but I just like it. Maslow's Heierarchy of Needs I've been thinking a bit this morning as I've woken up about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and where I am on the pyramid....

0300 woke briefly and wondered where I was. Hot and flustered. Had slept deeply though. I'd had another weird dream but I don't recall it. I'm gonna try and note more of my dreams down. They have to be quite interesting to analyse. 0630 awake again for good. The sun is shinning and it looks like it will be a stunning day. I slept like a log. Refreshed and feeling ready to take on the day. I need to be ready, it's a full on day. Got an award submission to write for work, deadline tomorrow. I'm...

0515 the alarm goes off, but I've barely slept. Perhaps I managed to snatch one hour of solid sleep. Having an Irish coffee midnight was not a great idea. I had planned to just jump in the car and go, but was a bit sweaty overnight, showered and C packed the rest of the luggage. Out of there and into the hire car around 5.50am. A pretty easy drive in all, the roads were almost totally clear untill we got to Alicante. Then we had a quick circle of the airport to find fuel for the hire car. Filled...

Finished reading Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life by Gary John Bishop Terrible book, that didn't provide anything insightful to my life. Full of random bit of advice that aren't at all meaningful. Poorly structured so it just feels like a series of random motivational quotes. Maybe this is what people are after these days in a book. It's easy to consume, felt like I was reading an instagram story. At least it was short and over pretty quickly. I should really have g...

0900 up and about. I had a weird dream that I was commuting in a ryanair flight to a small little island, with AJ and Danny, who had forgotten their laptop passwords, but I were going to be able to restore an image. Was a bit of a weird one. Quite vivid from what I recall. Anyway up and about getting some of those valuable sunshine rays. Really not good for the skin I know, but I'm on factor 30 and not really got burnt. Still gonna age me somewhat, sun, booze and too much food. That's what hol...

0915 up and about. Another slightly sore head, but nothing crazy. Heading to the supermarket at 10am shopping list: Beer Water Crisps Tonic Bread / Rolls Cold meat Milk Paella stuff for 10 people All came to 86 euros. Not bad. Wanna live out here for sure, cheap as and great weather. 1130 went to the beach. Rented some sun loungers for 6 euros each. Was pretty windy, noisy and hot, but nice beach. We kinda put our loungers away from the others. Paul an Alla turned up later, we then went fo...

0830 Up and about. A bit groggy, but not too mad. Must have called it a night at around midnight and got a decent night sleep. C cooked eggs for everyone for breakfast and a few coffees later and felt right as rain. The weather is truly beautiful. The villa is great, but there's work next door. Doing the pool area so drilling and cutting all week which puts a bit of a downer on things. Think we got about 300 Euros back as a gesture from the owner. Can't really make up for the place not being as ...

0800 Awake and typing this on my phone in bed. This room is bloody dark. Shutters on windows lead to a great night sleep. I don't know why we don't do this in the UK. Maybe because we just don't have as much sunshine as Spain, so the last thing we want to do is shit it out. We also dont have siestas the Spanish. I know C will want to sleep in, but I want to get up and face the day. I usually shower in the evenings when on holiday, (no point having a shower then hitting the beach to sit in the ...

0530 I'm in a good but not good mood as I wake up (at 0530am bloody hell that's early). I'm in a great mood as I fly to Spain. The weather looks amazing and I can't wait for some chill out time. I'm also a big pissed off as I times it so I'll miss the Europa League Final. That's a real shame as it would have been really nice way to start off the holiday. Instead I'll be negotiating Alicante airport, picking up a hire car and driving an hour north. Only to get to the villa as the match ends and ...

Logged back into Trello. Think I'm going to start using that again for my to-do list. I like todo.txt but I just can't seem to stick with it... I really need to get a bit better organised. There is shit loads going on right now. I've got a lot to get done today. I'm off on holiday tomorrow yesssss! Loads to do, I'm not packed and I'm still doing washing which I'm desperately trying to get dried and outside when it keeps raining. I'm trying to do this all through the backdrop of conference ca...

Today is bank holiday in the UK. This is a good thing, another day off. I damn well work hard enough as it is, I rekon every Monday should be a day off. What happened to the world getting more efficient and moving to a 4 day week. Actually we are all just working harder. On call 24hrs a day in a global economy. The idiots I work with even decided to start a whatsapp group and text me yesterday. What the fuck was that all about. It's a Sunday. The whole point of Sunday is to not have any contact ...

So it's been a pretty crazy week. I am proper glad it's Sunday. Ive just got back from a Sunday morning football kickabout and I'm well pleased the week is done. The exec visit was pretty full on and I'm surprised just how intense it was and how much it stressed me out. 8 Hours of presentations a day. 8am meetings to talk shit and the last day late into the night - home at 2.00am. I think I did ok. I also met a new connection ND and she could help secure a new future in this place. That's encour...

A really decent read which focuses on mental health. I only picked this book up as I'm a big fan of the Series - SAS who dares wins, but it was a good read. It details Jason's mental health challenges caused by PTSD and his road to recovery. There's not much action in this book with only a few details of his service in the forces. The book is well written and moves at a good pace, although some chapters feel a bit repetitive. I'd recommend though. ...

Up and about at 05.50 want an early start to get going and organised. Shaver out of battery so only half shaved. Made the 07.22 train which got me into waterloo at 08.05 waiting to meet A. I thought I'd explore a bit about how I feel heading into this meeting. I feel good and I look pretty good. It's a warm sunny day. That always lifts my spirits. This time of year is beautiful. I really need to get out of bed and go for a run on such a lovely morning. Maybe later in the week, for now I just n...

(aaaaand I'm back) I've lost my access to my listed blog. I uninstalled the extension, but when I re-installed realised I didn't have the unique key to login. Game over. What a shame for that account I was just getting going. Plus I can't go back and edit or delete any of that content. Here's a tip. Don't lose your credentials key you are stuffed if you do. I knew I'd somehow manage to screw something up I usually do. So it's been a pretty decent day so far. Managed to power through most of m...

2019-05-19 It's been one of those days. Our puppy "B" has decided to have her first season. Or at least we think that's what is about to happen. She managed to time it with the busiest week of our year. We had planned to put her into doggy day care. They won't accept here in that condition so it looks like a 3 hour drive to the in-laws to look after. What a right royal pain in the arse. Honestly, like we don't have enough going on, but bless her all the same it's not her fault and she brings so...

It's been one of those days. Our puppy "B" has decided to have her first season. Or at least we think that's what is about to happen. She managed to time it with the busiest week of our year. We had planned to put her into doggy day care. They won't accept her in that condition so it looks like a 3 hour drive to the in-laws to look after. What a right royal pain in the arse. Honestly, like we don't have enough going on, but bless her all the same it's not her fault and she brings so much joy to ...

Today I have no plans. I have a full on week next week. Some of the senior execs are over from the US. Plus a new boss. This is causing me some anxiety. I've been in this situation a many times before but the pressure is on like never before. I've got to finish my presentation for the meetings. I refuse to work today though. Not on a Sunday. I'll blast it out tomorrow and absolutely nail it. I'll write more on that situation tomorrow. Today is a new day, time is running away. I've got to get ...

Dear listed, I have no idea what the etiquette is for posting more than once a day here. This isn't twitter after all. So I don't really want to turn this into a microblog - tiny little tweets. But why would that matter even if I did? It seems to me that this is a place for sharing life texts. Life thoughts. If those happen to be twice a day then so be it. My own personal 100 days of writing doesn't mean that I only write once a day. (Frankly I skipped a day as work was so busy, I'm not countin...

On Sunday the vets footy team I'm part of won the league title. Currently unbeaten over 13 games with one game to go. I contributed a this season. Always coming off the bench. Sometimes for only for 10 mins, sometimes longer. Thoughts on Winning the league A league season is totally different to a one off game. I know that sounds obvious, but it galvanises a team, makes training more fun and provides a long term goal. The comradery in football is second to none. There simply is nothing lik...

So the footy season is over, both for me as a player and the English Premier League. There's still the champions league to go and the FA cup, but the league is done. I play in a vets football team. That is a team of players over 35. That means we are all falling apart physically, but we are all super competitive. We've already won the league, but we were playing Ash a team of physical and tough players. We wanted to finish on a high. We'd won every game of the season so far. We wanted to win ev...

Just finished reading Filth by Irvine Welsh (spoilers). This is a good book, and very dark. It lives up to the blurb of having themes of sexism, racism and other pretty offensive topics. The main protagonist is a disgusting human. The crude antics he gets up to involving drugs, sex and other immoral behaviour are pretty nasty. He's a scheming and devious arsehole that you wouldn't want to meet. Doesn't sound that positive for a role in a book and why read? Well, I like a dark book occasional...

Dear friends, This really feels like freedom. This platform. At least that's what I think right now as I'm kinda happy for a place that I can write and share. I've been reading a few of the other blogs hosted here. It's nice that I see many are in some ways anonymous. That's the draw for me. Not because I have some clandestine reason to be here. Just the home page rings a bell for me: You worry less about how others will perceive your words, and more about feeling fulfilled that you shar...

I had two very kind folks comment in my guestbook today. I've only just got started, on this platform so:- Wow - thank you :) It gave me an absolute positive lift and confirmed that this is a great place for me to put my writing online. I thank you for your considered kind words. Positive comments, thank you so much, you made my day. But also, it makes me ponder about what I am trying to achieve here... It isn't guestbook entries, just because i get a little tingle of love from the guestbo...

I've been struggling on with my old Kindle for ages. It's a beaten up old Kindle wifi. It works a treat though so why upgrade? I must have spent hundreds of hours with this device. Good and fulfilling hours too, not like my phone. I want to upgrade as I want a backlight so I can read a kindle in bed rather than using my phone (which I use now for either for the kindle app, or just pissing around on the web). I've seen some Kindle Paperwhites on ebay for around £40. That's pretty reasonable w...

One Hundred Days Of Writing Largely inspired by standard notes and this blog post: https://listed.standardnotes.org/@Listed/5202/100-day-writing-challenge I've also been inspired by a few others: 750 Words That dude that wrote 1000, 1000 word essays Morning pages Every other site on journaling I am starting a journey here today of writing every day for one hundred days. Today is day one, let's see how long it lasts. I think I will easily be able to write every day - the challenge will be 1...