Observations from a Hill

Randomly tonight, I chanced on a small guide to the rules for the card game of cribbage; a game I used often to play and which, as far as I know, is still the only card game legally playable in UK public houses. Which made me think back to the 1970s and The Lads [blog posts passim] playing crib at The Lamp Tavern, in Dudley, now in the larger metropolitan conurbation of the West Midlands. The Lamp has a special place in my beer-drinker's heart as it was the place where I was introduced to one of the finest ales ever created at the hand of mankind: Batham's Best Bitter, a decently strong beer, even by modern standards, at 4.3% ABV [that's OG 1043.5, old school]; so four pints at lunchtime on a Saturday was a bit of an undertaking, if you were to make it out for the evening session, which we always did, naturally.  Batham's brewery was founded in 1877 and had establishments ranging from the pub that housed the brewery in Brierley Hill: The Bull & Bladder, otherwise kn...

I came across a pre-release academic paper yesterday that, even though I haven't done more than scan it, and to be frank the absolute substance of it, mathematically, is beyond my ken, made me ponder on the glorious phenomenon that is human consciousness itself. As a species we are capable of the most astonishing achievements of engineering and science, coming up with not only an understanding of why things are the way they are, but also how to manipulate the phenomena we've observed and analysed to our own ends. Add into that the fact that we have created art, music and culture independent of physical need simply because we can, is testimony to a species not simply dependent on the need for survival itself. That we are capable, equally, of being an intemperate, unthinking and venal species is also, unfortunately, a simple fact, but one which does not naysay the depth of our creativity. The paper in question, however, despite its complexities of argument, posits what is essent...

  Gratuitous food post tonight. The state of the world is beyond bearing at the moment and I really can't be bothered to try and make sense of any of it at this juncture; so, pictured is tonight's repast of jazz chicken curry and naan. Even though I've got all the base notes I wanted to include in the sauce, including ginger, green chilli, amchoor, etc., it still erred on the sweet side of what I had intended. Nevertheless, it ate well and this time was of my own invention and therefore not a porkie on my behalf, and so I can honestly lay claim to its invention. I've still a long way to go until I find my holy grail - the Brummagem Madras - but the joy I guess is in the quest itself. I was musing earlier on how pathetically limited the lives of stupidly-rich people must be; when they can afford anything they see at any time. No searching, no questing, no lusting after the unobtainable, and no imagination or personal creativity. How fucking boring must that get: all tha...

So, Trump's gone and pulled the trigger on the Middle East, and started what might just be the prelude to the World War that so many have speculated that one day would emerge from the region: who knows? Whatever the ultimate outcome, Trump has bought himself time and breathing space to divert attention away from his domestic politics and personal problems, not least of which is the Epstein Files issue, and the divisions that are starting to show in his MAGA base. Does he actually care about the purpose or outcome of his invasion? Of course not. Will his oft-voiced 'plans' for regime change in Iran actually happen? Of course not: the Iranian regime has been planning for the eventual death of its ageing leader and his replacement for some time, and they have sufficient powers of governmental control to seriously limit any potential popular uprising of their critics, as they have demonstrated so brutally in recent weeks and months. It is unlikely that much in the way of domest...

I could be economical with the truth and assert quite falsely that the above representation is of the remnants of a rather fine curry and rice penned by my own hand last night. It would be, in short, a lie, as it was from M&S [apart from the Ahmed's Lime Pickle on top]. A rather insignificant white lie, perhaps, but an untruth nevertheless, and I would have felt guilty about such a misleading assertion. But in truth, illogically, I know, the untruth is the stock in trade of the world: the planet is governed on the fuel of baseless falsities; the wheels of politics are greased by porkies, as is big business and its slick supporting partners, advertising, social media, and false rumour. Nowhere, of course is that more in evidence than in the case of the US Presidency and current geopolitics in general. The wish fulfilment modus operandi of the '... if I voice it, it must be true, and damn the lot of you who question my integrity ...' brigade has become the de facto tool o...

OK - as is well-documented in these pages over the last six years, I've been trying to find some semblance of external organisation for my somewhat scattershot thoughts, which I hoped would remain principally in the analogue domain. But as I've mentioned before on a number of occasions, I've still got the itch to get back into the hybrid information domain of HyperCard, that woefully abandoned piece of Apple citizen-tech that was a work of true genius - and still remains impressively so - that was originally a freebie with every Mac computer back in the day [blog posts passim]. I've been scouring around the net for a long time to find an alternative solution to the fact that the only way I can run the original entails using a very old Mac and original disks, or running the original in emulation; neither of which are really practical. I might have found something that will fill that curious void between analogue and digital: Decker; a free software package that runs fin...