Funeral wishes

Music - opening: Sufjan Stevens - With My Whole Heart

Music - closing: Julie Elven - Survive

Attire: Blue, no black

Method: Enzyme

Ashes: Plant with sycamore seeds

Responding to "Heartstopper is unauthentic"

Someone on Instagram said: "Heartstopper has the same authenticity of the gay experience as lesbian porn made by straight men does. Odds are that if you are not a tween girl, you’ll just find Heartstopper absolutely cringe."

My response:

I'm a bi 36yo guy and I love Heartstopper, it's not cringe at all. I think anyone who finds it cringe just lacks empathy and emotional intelligence.

Heartstopper is about depicting a positive, healthy romance, not a couple where one of them dies at the end or leaves after a summer fling. That doesn't mean it's unauthentic by any means. You could say it's a bit fairytale, but that's what we need in LGBT+ media. Where's our gay Disney prince already? Gay characters in media are too often killed off or just token characters. Even Doctor Who kills off gay characters left right and centre. Heartstopper is not meant to be like Skins or Skam, it's meant to depict actually good romance stories that we can aspire to for once.

It's been in the top 10 series on Netflix for every season in over 50 countries, and 10 million books sold, and it's the most emotionally intelligent LGBT+ series I've seen - not lame by any standards.

Reading Council - Litter police

This is in response to:

https://media.reading.gov.uk/news/further-crack-down-sees-fines-for-fly-tippers-up-more-than-tenfold

I think it is rather hypocritical and I am actively against any further spending into third party enforcement officers. As per the article, "Council[s] commitment to keep Reading tidy", I will explain out how ineffective they are.

- These contractors only operate on Broad Street & Oxford Road, whereas most of the litter and fly-tipping is actually on residential streets like Great Knollys and Russell Street. When did you last fine kids littering outside the Academy? 

- Fining elderly, disabled, or blind people for accidental littering is unethical

- My bins haven't been collected at least twice every year, regardless of location, having lived here 18 consecutive years. Should I be asking for a refund for my council tax for those months?

- Some residents in the town centre like when I lived on Kings Road have zero recycling collection, it's all just general waste, with no limit on black bags.

- The plastic red/grey bins that aren't big enough even for recycling, I often have to stockpile recycling until there is enough space again. I think recycling collection should be every week.

- Uncollected street bins like on Russell Street and Baker Street. Bins are typically overflowing after 3 days since they've been emptied.

- I would rather you make it easier to volunteer e.g. Victoria Park local group's efforts in street cleaning, or incentives like paying volunteers to collect plastic bottles - this is already popular at other festivals like Latitude and in European countries like Malta.

- Multiple drains blocked on Broad Street that still remain unfixed including up to St Mary's Butts roundabout, and multiple wonky tiles on Broad Street that cause tripping - which could lead to accidental littering

- If people just pick up their litter and either take it away with them or bin it, then there is no crime.

It is a waste of resources putting more money into enforcement officers and I will not stand for my council tax being spent on this when it is clear that litter collection is not being done, incorrectly, and not where it is needed the most.

Scapegoats

I thought I was glad that I was born in an era of human history without ritual sacrifice, burning witches, or public hanging - and instead, access to medicine to prevent an early death, glasses so I can see, an inhaler so I can breathe, etc.

Then I researched and realised:

People still blame scapegoats: when a society faces massive, inexplicable stress, someone will start pointing fingers (Said René Girard etc)

40,000 BCE: animal sacrifice for successful hunts

12,000 BCE: human sacrifice exploded with agriculture to ensure a good harvest

500 BCE: religion and philosophy start to reduce ritual sacrifice

1500: burning witches begins at the same time science develops

1800: public hanging continues despite the advent of science. Cesare Beccaria etc introduces modern justice (proportional crime for reason with rehab). the killings move more inside prisons instead

2006: Farage blames immigrants as a scapegoat, instead of the wealthy elite of capitalism.

Public shaming, cancel culture and blaming immigrants is the modern live burial, temple sacrifice, gallows, or pyre.

Farage is taking advantage of a modern societal stress. Rather than the promise of a good harvest, it's about cost of living - but it's actually caused by the wealth divide. It's just easier to point blame at outsiders than the top 1%.

Edible Foods

Here's a full list of everything I eat because I'm fussy.

British/ American:

Salmon: fillets, smoked slices, parcels, sushi (sashimi, nigiri, hosomaki)

Mackerel

Prawns with cocktail sauce

Sausages (including vegan), frankfurters, saveloy, pigs in blankets

Sausage rolls

Beef or cheese burgers or sliders (prefer single patty) especially with cheese and caramelised onion

Impossible burger

Chicken burgers with mayo

Chicken nuggets, turkey dinosaurs

Quorn nuggets

Chicken wings like southern fried

Cereal

Tuna fish and mayo sandwich, tuna melt

Cheese and crackers with pickle

Cheese on toast with worstershire sauce

Ham and cheese toastie, Croque monsieur

Chicken Caesar salad

Sunday roast (not potatoes unless hot and crispy)

Breakfast: Sausage, Eggs, Bacon, Toast

Fries

Muller yogurts

Hot dogs

Pork pies

Dairylea lunchables, dunkers, mozzarella sticks

Steak with peppercorn sauce

BBQ ribs

Mac and cheese (though I've had many disappointing mediocre ones, M&S do the best with bcaon bits)

Italian:

Spaghetti bolognese

Spaghetti meatballs

Beef lasagne

Chicken arrabbiata

Chicken carbonara

Pizza: Hawaiian, pepperoni, ranch bbq, mini pizzas

Pasta: penne, tortellini, baked, rigatoni

Garlic bread

Mexican:

Chicken or pork tacos

Chicken fajitas (no pepper, onion)

Nachos (minus beans)

Churros

Quesadilla 

Indian:

Chicken korma

Pilau rice, or plain rice

Chicken tikka masala

Paneer tikka masala

Poppadoms

Garlic naan or peshwari naan

Shakarpara

Chinese/Thai

Sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style (without veg)

Sweet and sour ribs, honey ribs

Crispy Wonton

Satay chicken

Egg fried rice, plain rice, jasmine rice

Roast puff pork pastry

Char Siu Bao

Japanese:

Sashimi: salmon

Hosomaki: salmon, tuna

Nigiri: salmon, prawn, tuna

Chicken katsu curry

Mochi

Doriyaki

prawn crackers

Chicken bao buns but without coleslaw

Misc:

Korean chili crispy chicken

Huel ready to drink (Berry, Strawberries & Cream) / hot and savoury

Calamari

Halloumi, including as fries

Crisps including prawn crackers

Sweet popcorn

Pot noodles

Graze flapjacks

Bratwurst

Veg:

Carrots

Sweetcorn including corn on the cob - but not in or combined with any other food

Lettuce

Tomato

Red onion (especially raw)

Beetroot (pickled)

Broccoli (not the stems)

Fruit:

Strawberry

Orange

Lychee

Guava

Pineapple

Grapes

Blackberry

Raspberry

Dragonfruit

Partial like of fruits, just not always the texture:

Apple

Banana

Mango, including mango lassi

Cherries

Coconut

Peach

Things I do not eat, don't recommend anything with these or any variation of them:

Aubergine

Avocado

Beans

Brussel sprouts

Burritos (because of the meat and veg mixed together)

Cabbage

Cauliflower (unless deep fried to be like wings)

Casserole (mix of meat and veg)

Chicken Goujons (often weird gooey texture inside)

Chicken Kiev (creamy inside is a horrible texture)

Chickpeas Coffee (anything flavored like coffee)

Dark chocolate

Eel

English muffins

Fish and Chips, as breaded fish like cod or haddock or batter is usually soggy, so this also excludes fish fingers

Focaccia bread - honestly the worst bread. Tiger bread is great.

French toast

Fried onions (all other forms of onion I like)

Fusili, Farfalle, Conchiglie, Rotini, Orzo, Linguine, Orecchiette, Fettuccine

Hot pot

Japanese fried chicken, Chicken Karaage 

Kale

Kimchi

Loaded fries - any type

Melon, watermelon (soapy taste)

Mushrooms

Olives

Omelette or scrambled egg

Onion rings, again it's like tempura batter

Peas Peppers

Potato including mash or potato skins, or sweet potato fries

Prawn toast (it's nothing to do with the oil)

Prawns in any other form except for cocktail sauce or nigiri

Pulled pork burgers, though in tacos they're fine

Pumpkin

Rocket

Salt and pepper chicken, because often soggy

Salty popcorn

Sea urchin

Shepherd's Pie / Cottage Pie, because of the mixed meat and veg and potato

Soy

Spinach

Temaki

Tempura

Teriyaki

Turnip

Unagi

Capybara

I think top-down, in that I consider myself to be quite chill, on the fence a lot, and in the middle. Spirit animal might be a capybara.

However many people I meet seem to be bottom-up thinkers, with a series of deep knowledge, rules and systems of their own that are complex, and take them all very seriously. Whereas there are little things I take seriously. I don't have any tattoos, or piercings (Existential Flexibility), I don't think I'm committed enough to anything like that, the most I commit is having graphic tees, plushies, and setting my background.

I think my key philosophies/tenets are:

• YOLO so nothing matters (Optimistic Nihilism)
• pacifism over violence
• respect regardless of your background
• most problems are caused by systems not individuals (Sociological Empathy)
• it's okay to not be okay
• ideas are essential to survival, so creativity and play are more important than exams (Constructivism, Visionary Individualism)
• we aren't perfect organisms, we make mistakes, and the brain tricks you, so we shouldn't hold each other to such high standards (Cognitive Humility)

What does insecurity look like?

Insecurity forces people to behave with heat over heart.

Attack or defend prematurely

Misinterpret neutral situations as threats

Instead: Accept humility, it's okay to be vulnerable 

Loudly assert dominance or correctness

Covers up a fear of being inadequate

Instead: Remain calm

Build walls instead of bridges

Prioritizing self-preservation over actual relationship-building

Instead:  Use empathy and open communication

Why do people support Reform?

People are rightly angry at things they can't control (like the cost of living crisis), and so they listen to the person (Farage) who can easily point blame at the problem (immigration) and markets themselves as an underdog rather than part of the establishment (has lots of photos taken having a beer at a pub).

People like Farage are the real problem: trillionaires, billionaires and multi-millionaires hoarding wealth, like Farage.

"AI is bad"

Writing a letter to your letting agency to terminate your contract isn't being creative. Asking AI to do it for you makes sense. But you're also wrongly treating AI as a monolith. AI has already been in your spam filters. Detecting cancer cells in an x-ray. Handling your cruise control. Flying your plane. The only difference now is LLMs are more easily accessible. So you can't say AI overall is bad.  

Counter-argument to finding films pointless because of the Seven Basic Plots

The problem with the Seven Basic Plots defining all films is there's several popular and successful films that don't fit in those categories: Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Boyhood, Memento, Parasite, Eraserhead, Swiss Army Man, Clockwork Orange, Sorry to Bother You, Being John Malkovich, The Lobster, Her... And a lot of horror movies don't fit in any category or actually disguise their actual genre. I've also seen some art-style films that ignore it too. But regardless, even if someone made a complete list, the descriptions of these categories are so generic that I'm not sure it means you can't enjoy films. It's what is unique about films that I enjoy them the most - what makes them stand out apart from anything else. And even then, when you look at many films, they end up being multiple genres rather than strictly one overarching plot. I watch films because they are fun or interesting, not because I know what's going to happen. Same reason that I go on living despite knowing that free will doesn't exist, or that the sun will eventually boil and consume the Earth. Paraphrasing Vision in Age of Ultron, and the entire plot of Arrival: just because something isn't made to last doesn't mean it's not beautiful or not worth the time.