Grand tidying up day
This is one of those rare days when I have nothing to do, nor do I have any drive to do anything in particular. However, there is something that inexorably beckons. There is no question, the clutter in my bungalow has been getting greater and greater and today was the day that I chose to go through everything in my bulging cupboards and drawers and weed out those things that I do not need. There is no doubt about it, I find it very difficult to throw anything away on the grounds that I might need it some time. However I do draw the line at something that has no use because my lifestyle has changed, that no longer works and would cost too much time and effort to get it working, or something that is a duplicate or in the wrong place i.e. should be taken to the recycle.
I have divided my retained possessions into two parts. I have thrown away those the day will not want and I have put to the side things that I might want and I have put to the front things that I will use if not on a daily but a weekly basis. I find the whole thing quite disturbing but therapeutic at the same time. This morning I have reduced 5 shelves of clutter to 1 1/2 shelves and I’m now preparing myself to go through a lot of redundant paperwork going back years and throwing out what I don’t need. The taxman requires 7 years of records but I think that as I’m retired and just do a little bit here and there, the taxman is going to be very bothered with me.
I took a vacuum cleaner and a duster to all the surfaces and I must say the whole room feels a bit brighter. My next goal will be to clear out our very large attic which basically consists of my history, things that I used to do in the past and loved, and it is the same for Francoise. She used to do photography and has lots of lovely equipment going back to the days before digital.
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I have been trying without success to find someone to do a decent job on my WordPress embryonic website which is needed in about 3 weeks time to demonstrate to a conference. The first person was from Romania and he seemed to have some sort of psychological problem which prevented him from concentrating so he would make vague promises and not keep them, he would disappear for a couple of days doing something else and not tell me, and when I got the first example of his work which was a website or supposed to be a website, it was not functional. I’m in the process of getting a refund. You always take a risk when the communication is impersonal. The guy from Romania thought I was from the United States for some strange reason so this does diminish the likelihood that personal service will be given.
The second time I used PeoplePerHour which is a good service that I’ve used before, but again the guy who promised to come back to me has not done so or has not done the work that I needed fairly urgently. In desperation I rang Terry, who normally services my computer and I found that he does WordPress, having given up on HTML about 10 years ago. I’m due to see him tomorrow so hopefully he will solve the problem. I did think of using Facebook as a type of forum for the professional group but I’m designing the website for but Facebook is so compromised and the algorithms are so insensitively applied that I think Facebook is a dying force now.
We need to get used to the fact that everything we say, write or do is recorded somewhere. Every single computer has a back door so if people want to spy on us there is nothing to stop them doing so. In addition, if we are in London, we probably get photographed 40 or 50 times a day without even knowing it so I feel the idea of privacy is an illusion.
Forbidden Knowledge is a site that I have been with for many years now. This video which lasts 9:10 sums up the situation in the world as well as any I have seen. Although it was only published 17 Oct 2018 there have been 856,640 views (13:48 8 Nov 2018 +0 GMT). When I had finished viewing, the numbers were 856,714 views. THAT is viral. There is an exquisite balance between doom and hope. Enjoy and drink it in.