A Slow Start
It’s never good to start with an apology or excuses, but here we are. When I decided to kick this off, I had a myriad of ideas running around inside my head on what I’d like to share here. But every time I went to make a start I couldn’t decide whether I actually had anything interesting to say, or if it would just result in a few lines of incoherent musings. Stalled by indecision, I was easily distracted by anything which drew my attention, such as staring at my phone browsing social media, staring at my phone and refreshing my parcel tracking apps to see if anything had updated in the past five minutes, or staring at my phone reading articles suggested to me by Google. It also being my rostered week for work didn’t help things, as these are nearly always a tad chaotic.
So, for the sake of putting pen to paper, instead of the many pieces I have lined up, I thought something quick and nasty would be better than nothing. Maybe. Time will tell on that I suppose.
As I alluded to, this was a work week for me. Work revolves on a week-on, week-off basis, with some variations here and there as needed. I plan to go into more detail on what I do in a later post, but at this stage I’ll just say describing your night at work as ‘two Handy’s and a Cape’ barely raises an eyebrow. During my week, hours aren’t fixed. Our shifts may be for a few hours, or they may be for 10. Will I be working through the night, or will I get the chance to enjoy Gentleman’s Hours? Who knows? That’s all part of the mystery and will be revealed eventually. Although it’s great work, a sense of humour and flexibility is definitely required. The confused look on peoples faces when they ask me ‘are you working tonight’ and I respond with ‘possibly, I don’t know yet’ never ceases to amuse me.
A disproportionate amount of my time this week has also involved waiting not so patiently for packages to arrive. Although parcel tracking offers the reassurance that something is making its progress towards us, it also provides a startling insight into our own impatience. With the irrational sense of immediacy which would make a toddler say ‘calm down bro’, we constantly refresh our parcel tracking, wondering why that thing we ordered two hours ago isn’t yet out for delivery. Any stalling in the process and our primal urge to just drive to the parcel centre and pick it up ourselves kicks in - our prehistoric ancestors being big consumers of online shopping of course. The flip side is that sometimes that item which seems to be eternally bouncing around a distribution centre, making you wonder if you’ll ever see it, suddenly turns up on your doorstep unannounced, bringing songs of joys, heralded by the angels above. It’s a true emotional roller coaster, and not one I think I have to fortitude to endure on a regular basis. But I’m glad to report all but one of my expected packages have arrived. The outstanding one is still out there, somewhere, to be dropped on my doorstep sometime in the future. Maybe.
Another highlight of my week was copping (another) 7 day ban from Facebook. This time is wasn’t for calling a Scott Morrison acolyte an ‘unmitigated wankpuffin’ - although this isn’t due to some outstanding moral fortitude on my part, having been blocked by his page well before the election. Nor was it for referring to Americans and their obsession with guns as ‘weird’, which is apparently ‘hate speech’. This was for spreading ‘COVID misinformation’, posting a screenshot which ridiculed anti-vax cookers. Good to see the algorithms are working so well. All is not lost though. The ban was lifted this morning, so I can resume regular transmission - just not sure how long it will last…
On the subject of Facebook, just before my ban I copped probably the worst insult I’ve ever received, despite often going toe to toe with some of the platforms more deluded participants. Having ridiculed a random American and his assumption that everything revolves around the US, his response of ‘OK Boomer’ cut me deep. As someone from Generation X with an unhealthy contempt for the preceding generation, this hurt, a lot. I was stuck. How do you respond to that? Stamp your foot and declare ‘how dare you’ in a very Boomer-like fashion? I had to just let it slide. That didn’t stop me from muttering ‘screw that prick’ under my breath multiple times through the remainder of the day. To be honest, I’m still a bit salty about it.
Not much else went on this week. I finished Elle Hardy’s excellent book Beyond Belief on how Pentecostal Happy Clappers are increasingly gaining influence around the world. Also, the stickers for my website mattonamoto.com arrived, and I found the time to fit some newly arrived parts to the bike. Finally, I’m happy to say the silkworms I’ve been caring for the last few weeks have all finally finished their cocoons, and are happily metamorphosing into their final evolution. Which is good because I was rapidly running out of my stock of mulberry leaves. If you think teenagers can shovel food into their mouth, you should check out what silkworms are capable of.
Today is also the first day of my leave, so that should give me time to catch up on matters I’ve been neglecting - such as my writing and getting back into shape. A bit of time away on the bike wouldn’t hurt either. My parents are also spending some time here, having never been to Newcastle before, so I’m looking forward to taking them around and seeing the sites.
Again, I appreciate your time reading this. My apologies it’s not as windswept and interesting as I would have liked, but now that I’ll have a bit more time, I’m be sure to put something a bit more substantial together soon. I’ll have to take some steps to pretty this thing up a bit. A decent header image wouldn’t go astray.
Matt
Thanks for making it this far. If you enjoyed reading this, please feel free to subscribe.
If you think someone else might enjoy it, sharing is just a click away.