Mike's Meandering Mentalities!

Thursday’s Thoughts & Deeds.

I felt with all that’s happened on Thursday morning I should give (as best as I can recall) the tale of what happened & some of the interesting anecdotes that occurred.

It was a slightly atypical Thursday morning in the cold early days of February, atypical as I had to go to work (Thursday is generally my day off) it did not seem as cold as previous days had been, there were however some treacherous patches on the paths which made it hard going generally, I wandered off to the metro station with a playlist of 90’s alternative rock on my iPod (stuff of the ilk of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Tad, Mother Love Bone, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Soul Asylum, etc…)  looking forward to the weekend and the musical tomfoolery I’d be engaging in then.  I reached the Metro station as my usual Metro pulled in (very lucky I thought, as I’d missed it once & been stupidly early another time in the preceding days) .

I sat down & rather than pull out “The Girl Who Played With Fire” & start reading it, I decided (I’m not sure why) to look at my phone’s social networking apps, checking the updates on Facebook I saw nothing new that warranted my interest (sorry folks some mornings the updates are just boring), so I took a look on Twitter, one of the folks I follow (name not used due to lack of permission) was on a train ahead of me which had broken down near Pelaw, we were shortly told the train we were on would be going no further than Brockley Whins & on we went, myself filled with a wariness as to what might happen in the near future, I had the forethought of perhaps informing my work I’d be late but didn’t actually do anything at this time (I was hoping the blockage would be removed so we could pass by the time my train hit Brockley Whins, it didn’t pan out this way).

At Brockley Whins the train emptied & everyone (including myself for a short time) loitered on the platform waiting for news, after a few moments I began to contemplate alternatives… I could walk towards my destination, hopefully pass a cash-point & perhaps find a bus, or perhaps find an alternative method of getting in to Newcastle, I consulted Google maps & decided my next move, Simonside (a Metro station on a different branch) was a short walk from my current location so I reasoned I should head for that station, get a metro from there into Newcastle & be only a short while late, off I went through Boldon (an area with which I am generally unfamiliar), on my way I stopped at occasional sources of shelter to determine my route (as the rain was light but persistent) & walked past a chap in a car who had clearly never been there asking where Brockley Whins Metro station was, I indicated a total unfamiliarity with the area and waved generally behind me saying “I’ve just come from there, but I don’t know the area very well, it’s kind-of that-a-way.” He thanked me and drove off.

I found myself walking along a main road, crossed and passed through an industrial estate finding myself at Bede metro station (I was in luck this was one stop closer than my original target of Simonside & there was a train due in 5 minutes heading for “Newcastle” my joy was to be short-lived however after travelling 2 stops the train terminated at Hebburn.

This time however we were told we could catch “any Go-North-East bus” as I walked away from the station I began a conversation with a lady about whom all I know is that she works in Longbenton & she had come from Sunderland this morning, we attempted to allay our bosses concerns at our respective ETA’s & determined upon noticing the queue at the bus stop outside the station to walk down to the next bus stop we could find before that one, which as it happened was an idea one other lady had thought of we stood relaying our displeasure at the situation, the new lady had come from South Shields at about 8:00 that morning so had been waiting some considerable time.  We stood chatting together until we flagged down the first bus to come along (it was not a Go-Ahead bus but we were in no mood to be delayed further & the driver accepted that the Metro service had allowed us to board the bus with our Metro tickets & passes).

At the next stop the bus filled up we were joined by a chap in a suit who had ridden from South-Shields to Hebburn, back to South Shields in time to catch the next Metro which promised to get to Newcastle (it didn’t, the chap had left his car parked in South Shields with his jacket in and was freezing in the cold of this winter morning), we all talked of previous Metro delays and the slow progress the bus we were on was making all the way to Heworth, jumped off & made our way to the platform, we stood in the crowd watching the arrival board which said there was a Metro Due to take us to Newcastle & another a minute later, there was a metro stationary on the opposite platform (ordinarily pointed towards Pelaw, South Hylton & South Shields). I considered the facts and decided the Metro opposite was indeed the one which was “due” a point I  mentioned to my fellow commuters a moment before the tannoy announcement, we all ran back up the stairs across the concourse & back down to the platform, during which I lost my companions & acquired a new one, we sat & talked through our prolonged journeys as the Metro finally moved us towards Newcastle, I arrived at work around 11:25 and found the place in disarray due to re-wiring, my boss had only recently arrived himself having been delayed by a crash on the road in to town, ironically near to Pelaw.

I checked my Twitter feed around this time to find out that my friend who was trapped on the train had finally been allowed off after about an hour and a bit, all in all a terrible morning’s transportation.

The very next day I had my pass checked twice by ticket inspectors, I nearly gave them a serious earful for the shenanigans of the preceding morning but decided to simply compose an email requesting compensation for the hassle I experienced & the lack of tangible information or service regulation we all experienced that cold dreary morning.

My thanks to those who spoke to me that day it was good to know that I was not alone in the infuriation & that people when faced with trouble can talk & share problems with strangers in a similar situation to maintain morale.

Incidentally here’s another blog about the same morning’s events:

http://jonathancarling.tumblr.com/post/17341775988/12-02-09-worst-public-transport-ever-metro

Infrequency causes issues…

Now, I don’t blog often (because I’m lazy) but I’m always thinking of stuff to say, some of it becomes tweets, some works it’s way into lyrics, some just waits too long & becomes outdated & irrelevant (a feeling I get about myself every now & then).  I should (and at some point might) get into spoken word properly, I tried it a year ago near enough, loved it & never went back, the other option is to use my You Tube account to start Vlogging (Video Blogging as I understand it to mean, my English is (not quite) proper English, not tech-head speak), both require some effort.  The first is more intensive (I need to leave the house to do it) but guarantees an audience, the second is more initially expensive but I can do it from home & am pretty certain that someone might watch, then start picking it apart & I will know what it is like to be “Trolled” (again I don’t quite know, it’s computer jargon, I’m guessing it means people will start taking the piss & never listen to reason til I block them because you can’t beat the crap out of someone over the internet!).

This is gonna be a digest of half digested recent ideas, maybe, 

Thinking Too Much

I spend too much of my down-time going round in circles in my head, questioning my motives, second guessing long irreversible decisions, debating my own spiritual well being & personality.

Then I sit cursing others & their apparent joi-de-vivre.

Could I have had a better life?

No I’d have made all the decisions I made thus far & was often too stubborn to listen to reason so wouldn’t have accepted the foolishness of dropping out of college first time through.

Where am I getting myself?

A healthy dose of humility should stave off the urge to point out my fellows’ failings & in doing so opening up to have my flaws revealed.

I am still a child effectively.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners are making me think through my decisions again, a pastime only indulged while listening to my oldest, still current, musical love.

OK so not quite a digest, the other idea has legs & I think I can expand it to a decent standard so it will be a post in it’s own right later, the same with at least one of the other ideas that’s become a note on my PC, most of the notes on my phone are lyrical (if they survive you’ll catch them in a musical project later), I guess there’s not much I needed to say right now.

Quitting my addictions…

Addictions come in many guises, mine are somewhat minor afflictions which cause only mild distress when withdrawal is exercised, they are predominantly social networking & games on my phone, caffeine and to a (thankfully) much lesser extent alcohol, I intend to back away from these addictive pastimes & beverages, my success will be measured by the fact of my not drinking coffee & booze & my absence from social networking, all easy to fake so not too hard really.

If I fail to add kudos to your next big tweet/status update, don’t hate me, I am ignoring it, but not necessarily you, Facebook messages will be checked, wall posts & mentions will not, I hope to action this cessation soon.

TTFN.

Blogging will continue…

Tearing myself apart

Besides being an awesome lyric (I think it’s a Rollins Band song, ooh there’s my going to work soundtrack sorted today then!) the title of this blog is kinda apt at the moment as I’m working my (aching) butt off 6 days a week right now, having a (bi-monthly) crisis of musical conscience, recovering from an accident 3 days ago that should be just a comical memory by now but remains a pain in the arse/back/elbow (although fortunately I’m nearing my usual working capacity now), on top of this it’s not too long till the annual gifting ceremony designed to look like a Christian festival that should re-kindle retail around the western world (but won’t cos the bankers have buggered it up).

I’m concerned about the global economy in a “how big is a trillion?” kinda way (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a trillion of anything!), I’m bothered by the lack of business being done at work as this may result in staff cuts (nothing has been said, nothing is certain but I’m worried), but worst of all I’m truly alarmed at my inability to finish a coherent sentence without several passages in parentheses.

My big bugbear with this year (Because everything else has been great, have you met my wife? She’s brilliant!) is the musical dissolution, I started the year in 2 bands, both of whom dissolved (I appear to be a catalyst in the death of bands, this scares me), I started some work with a couple of guys who I work OK with but the distance needed to travel & where I am with what I want to do cause me to question the viability of the project.

I thought a lot about re-forming Johnny’s Last Resort, but it wouldn’t be the same without Paul, I’d be forming a band similar in name & vocal style only really, plus I’ve not asked Paul if he’d be OK with it, I know last time I spoke to him he wasn’t in a Johnny’s Last Resort place, I do own the rights to the lyrics (where such rights exist) but the music (and all the recordings/video work) belongs to him, he is the man behind those aspects, I simply wrote some words, occasionally played a bass on recordings & shouted a bit.

So what am I on  about?  I’ll be honest, I don’t actually know.  The end of the year is nigh I’m still not picking up a guitar (except for demonstration purposes or to teach my uncle a few chords), I still can’t put a solo performance together (it’s getting worse each time I try I swear!), & I’m not entirely sure I want to, maybe I need to re-assess who I think I am & focus on the stuff I can do & do reasonably successfully but I need to work out what that stuff is first.

My last live performance was on my Stag Night, in May, that’s sobered me up!

… but seriously…

Every day we are presented with an endless stream of tedious pre-approved information from the news outlets & the media bombard us with all of the worst kind of controlling “entertainment” designed to keep us watching hour after hour as it infiltrates our minds with it’s advertising schtick.  We allow it to become our choices & it presents us with opportunities to explore similar turgid diversions & ignore the fact that we are slowly losing control of our lives & being bled dry by poor decision-making & greed, the whole thing is reminiscent of the fall of rome, & here it comes again.

We are slowly destroying our planet by trying to make things easier for ourselves and those who have the most are content to simply keep it and watch as others suffer, thinking “How can one person make a difference?” One person can make a difference by simply saying “no more, I will not sit idly by and watch as our society flounders in it’s effort to maintain an always unfair status-quo, I will not sit here with all my possessions that I have no ready use for while others are starving, I will not allow myself to become a bloated shit-bag while children starve & die of diseases I was innoculated against as a baby, we are all human beings and we should all be the recipients of Human kindness!”

I do not pretend to know the answers to the problems of Third World hunger, religious differences & violence, (I will not readily condemn religion, it has done (and continues to do) some good for many people, but those who mis-interpret it are clearly causing problems), Crime (why should any of the crimes of our society be tolerated in any way shape or form? If you wrong me shall I not seek my vengance? 30 years is not a life sentence, being raped can be because of the poor protection for victims of this most heinous of crimes.).  But it seems to me that fair distribution of food & shelter would certainly be a good start… If you live alone, why do you need a 5 bedroom home when there are people living on the streets?

I can’t pretend I’m perfect, I know better than that, but it may be necessary to start at the top & work down. I don’t, as I say, know the answers, but the questions are certainly stacking up now in my head, and that’s a start.