business, economics, politics

The Joy of Trump

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Now that he has seduced the rednecks with this lovely performance from his campaign, we are being told that the Rockettes have been told that they are not permitted to refuse to perform for the presidential inauguration.  Take a look at the Rockettes for comparative purposes:

This is a clear upgrade on the same theme, Trump is simply announcing a move to the big league of desperately old fashioned American entertainment.

In addition, Putin and Trump have evidently agreed to renew their arms race with a view to telling he rest of the world what to do, presumably involving killing a lot more people.

Expect increased radicalisation, more terror attacks and further moves to divide and conquer at the expense of hippy dipshit Europe in the developing nations.  There are cost-effective ways of countering this impending doom scenario, but will anybody in the Conservative government have the time or inclination to notice?  This after all gives permission to up national security and buy more weapons with money which is needed to stop sectors of the British population from starving to death.

So, as usual you are being told the opposite of the truth.  Buying more weapons is supposed to be the answer to world peace, spending more money will help people by killing them, and America persists in thinking they are policing the rest of the world.

Likewise we have now been told that starving the unemployed does not work No evidence that welfare sanctions work and that they cannot find a way of preserving the income of the one million millionaires, so they cannot figure out how to Brexit.  Brexit is essential for your future safety, never mind actually earning a living.  The misery of domestic political lies started a very long time before the crash of 2008.  As far back as 2002 we were told not to admit to the lack of jobs, because middle class people don’t talk about struggling.

Fuck that, frankly, we have been mismanaged by self-interest for some time.  At some point during the Thatcher government, the brakes were taken off the banks in the form of them no longer having to ensure that virtual money represented real money.  We have ridden a false wave of spurious growth ever since.

This has not been helped by the fashion in recent decades for employing people who will say yes to anything to pay their mortgage.  In real terms the economy of the UK as well as America benefited hugely from a culture of honesty and innovation, which is why Trump is so fond of using this terribly old-fashioned imagery.  He has no intention of backing that up, but this is why it is appealing.  Those of us who remember the popular post-war culture of honesty, bravery and growth feel some fondness for the spirit of patriotism in the form of working together towards a common goal.

The reason for the encouragement of dishonest behaviour for money, lack of empathy for others, labelling people who do not share our views, and fear of admitting that actually borders are a good thing is corporate expediency, which is what both Clinton and Trump represent in real terms, but on a different basis.  Trump is all out for himself and his fellow billionaire, with the same trickle down lies that goes with that that Clinton would support in the form of open globalisation.  It is all at your expense.  At no point does anybody want to help you, unless it involves you giving them yet more money.

And so the cycle continues, and as long as you use the same shops, vote the same way, respond emotionally with helplessness and play facile games on facebook instead of actually taking action, the cycle will continue until one day you will find yourself walking past a starved corpse on the street and not caring.  At all.

Think about that whilst you eat your Christmas dinner.

 

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business, economics, health, politics

Immigration and cultural problems

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Earlier this week, a young lady was posting about unemployed people sitting on their bottoms and complaining about immigrants taking jobs.  She was very young and clearly had a job, and so I said:

“Spoken like a person who has never filled a garbage bag with rejection letters.”

She immediately retorted that as someone who has, I was not her target.  So I wondered, does this mean you are to pay for your assumed racism with job applications?  This is the logical conclusion of her conversation so far, is it not? She is basically saying that in order to have a legitimate complaint against immigration, you need to have an unreasonable obsession with finding work and not getting it.

For one thing, unemployed people sitting on their ass and not applying for jobs no longer exist.  These people are sanctioned and are supposed to starve to death under the current rules. Other ‘useless eaters’ such as the disabled are also penalised and told that with three limbs missing (in at least one case) they are fit for work.  For another, concerns about immigration rise directly in relation to the availability of work and other resources.  THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH JOBS IN THE UK TO SUPPORT THE CURRENT POPULATION.

Syrian Girl, a vlogger on youtube, was actually the first person I heard who was keen to ensure that everyone is aware that the European experiment, free movement and the welcoming and dispersal of asylum seekers is actually just about depressing wages and making it easier for employers to exploit workers.

The people who you are keen to blame for their unemployment, meanwhile, used to be employed in factories, in catering establishments and in small businesses which the European experiment has gone quite a long way to phasing out.  Manufacturing suffered because it was cheaper to outsource, catering suffered because of the reduction of cash in the economy and the smoking ban, small business suffered because bigger businesses successfully lobbied for concessions to expand, hence the corner shop is being replaced by mini versions of the large supermarket chain.  Tesco, Sainsbury’s both have a presence in the smaller main streets to wipe out the sole trader businesses that immigrants and locals alike started when they could not otherwise find work.

Hence, your opportunities are more limited all the time, and more people means more competition for jobs which pay less.  No sensible person that genuinely cares about the people around them supports unlimited immigration and a reduction in basic wage and self employed opportunities.

And yet we hear people doing this all the time, associating it with being a ‘right on’ open minded person.  The population have been conned into a trap, where they are exploited in order to justify spending their taxes on bombing other countries, whose populations quite rightly decide to leave and seek safety and work elsewhere.

If you are following what I am saying so far, you will now be aware that you are screwed, and that continuing with the same views will ensure that your children, and their children will be even more screwed.  The alternative, of pulling out of violence in other countries, of being more prudent with your borders, of safeguarding your own opportunities, may not be fashionable, but it creates a healthier micro level economy and competition for the future.  Supporting business at the expense of the individual is basically supporting corporate fascism.

So, the next time somebody calls you a Nazi for being concerned about your country being overcrowded, you can easily explain why the real fascists are pro-Europe, pro-immigration right on liberals who want to see you crushed out of starting your own business, earning small wages for your underemployed situation with one of the big players such as Walmart (Asda)  who in turn have direct ties to pharmaceutical companies. They also tend to have places on the Board of Nutrition to tell you what to go out and buy.  Hence, you adhere to the nutrition guidelines and wonder why you always feel under par, ending up with heart disease, diabetes and dementia in line with whatever drug is most profitable.

If you particularly relish this, carry on pretending that borders don’t matter.

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health, motivation

Self Image and your Outlook

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Today has been the last day in Malta, and we took a day tour to Valletta, the capital of Malta.  Despite the continuing pain, I just about managed the clambering about, and we had a reasonably good last day.

A young Italian footballer was also on the tour, stinking of alcohol from last night, and became fixated on my ample ass.  Twisty was quite annoyed with this, since the very young man expressed his admiration  by glowering at my bottom and making comments behind his hand.

“Don’t worry about it, he is a chubby chaser, they are all the same.”  I said.

Twisty appeared to doubt this, and stared him down in a grumpy way.

“No seriously, I have been through this more times than you can count.  I could get annoyed and assume that he has a problem with large bottoms, but I know from experience that he would be the first one drooling all over me given half a chance.”

The rest of the day was spent dodging this guy staring at me and trying to catch my eye, until eventually I found myself hiding behind the tour guide.  I am flattered that he did not instead choose to chase the equally chubby young lady sitting at the back of the bus, who probably had no idea that we had a major fan of rotundity on board.

“Perhaps my future is to be the somewhat geriatric wife of a famous footballer, unless some enormous and somewhat flashier chick gets there first.”

For the ladies out there that don’t know, because I am well aware, especially since writing the books, that there are plenty out there that do not know, men are pretty laid back about female appearance.  Even the ones that pretend they want a trophy are just clueless little boys that associate shiny cars, playing expensive sport, and pricey clothing with success.  Their assertion that you need to be a skinny blonde bimbo is all front.  Men like variety, and there is no telling what they like from one day to the next.  Your attractiveness is really determined by your self image.

Much the same thing can be said for men, otherwise there would be no Har Mar Superstar, Weird Al, Marilyn Manson or Keith Lemon.  Women quite like to see confidence, whether that consists of sheer cheek or actual proficiency is of little consequence.  Broadly speaking, it is a question of advertising and figuring out the details later.

This can also be said of success. The Pedro on the Beach Story, which has a penniless and lazy fisherman bemused by a millionaire suggesting that he multiply his earnings in order to do nothing, which is what he is doing in the first place, is something we should all take very seriously in a world with dwindling resources.

Whilst there is no glory in poverty, there is no genuine dignity in your delusion of success.  Happiness is something you should cultivate regardless.

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creativity, games, politics

The Gambia, and a general progress update

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I see the deposed President of the Gambia, Jammeh has decided on a strategy for clinging to power.  As a result, many young Gambians are proposing to take to the streets to protest.

It is interesting that scenarios like this still exist.  To any hardcore strategy gamer, the plan is merely entertainment, and seems rather simple and quaint.  Jammeh has decided to promote key members of the military, denounce the impartial IEC who supervised the vote, and replace them with a corrupt, self selected version who will give him the result he wants.

As a formerly keen player of Tropico 3, I can tell you that this does not lead to long term stability.  It does lead to a more violent form of government which employs increasingly immediate means to quash dissent. I have advised my friend in the Gambia to stay well out of it and read some politics in preparation for deposing the guy, rather than rushing out and getting himself killed.

It is unfortunately unlikely that there will be any international intervention.  The Gambia has a small population of two million extremely poor people, and since Jammeh’s announcement that he now considers the Gambia to be Muslim, this makes it less likely that anyone will rush to the aid of the population, which is not a good thing if you happen to be Gambian.

What Gambians should bear in mind, is that nobody remembers a dead protester.  They remember the great educationalists, the politicians, the social actors that survived.

Jammeh, unfortunately, looks physically healthy, but his current behavior indicates that his knowledge of history is lacking to the extent that he is using techniques that are as old as the hills.  There are safer, and better ways of eradicating corrupt rule than getting killed. Look for free texts online and get them printed off or saved if you can, for reading up on historical ways of removing dictators rather than getting yourself shot.

 

Another nice snippet for this week, is that my blonde bombshell is considered to be acting out again.  He has my so far undying admiration for this.  Boris, so far, is turning out to be more interesting, more fun and far better looking than his predecessor.  Nice one, Boris. We were admiring your powerful brand earlier this evening.

The artwork is not going too badly either.  Jemima Khan is looking good, Iain Duncan Smith is on the way, and Darius Guppy is going as expected.  I am not sure how many I will release at once when they are complete.  Although it is not a taxing daily workload, the curing times mean that these pieces are very slow and space consuming, so I may yet be some time with the artwork.

The game is also progressing nicely, and I should be past graphics preparation and into writing after the weekend.  This is the first of three that I want to release at the same time, preferably alongside Best Adventure Ever and Lucifer Ogilvie, so it will be a few months yet.

As you can see, I had to restart the blog again, as wordpress had some problems updating.  I sincerely hope that this doesn’t happen again, but I will have to start backing up more often.

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More unemployed Furniture! The Conservative way!

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Over the weekend, I have acquired another twenty one unemployed items of furniture, and another three items that I already have lurking in the studio require my attention. This is turning into quite a production line. My garden currently looks as if I am about to host a conference.

 

I now need another thousand pounds or so of materials in order to give the starving hoardes what they need to get back to work. This is turning into a production line, which is a new concept, considering the length of time I give every piece I make.

 

I could raid my savings, but I think this is a bad idea, so I am sorting through my wool stock to see if I can dredge up another thousand pounds worth of stuff to sell to pay for the new materials. I am an absolute skinflint, but this usually means I can do what I set out to do without having to borrow anything.

 

My friend has appeared to lend a hand, and so everything should move a bit faster. Basically the sewing is now going to have to move entirely to my bedroom, and the studio will now have to be given over entirely to the furniture.

 

Short term, the collections are now Sheep in wolf’s clothing, Jazz, and Beach, classified by the existing carpets, which take the longest. For each major carpet, I will be creating a chair, table, lamp, footstool, box and probably some cushions and mirrors/wall art. Thereafter the idea is that I present the Ina Disguise concept in style groupings, which should make more sense of my uncompromising attitude to design. My heartfelt thanks to Boris, I seem to be a bit more practical and mercurial than I was when it was a simple compulsion.

 

So tomorrow I will dismantle the conference facilities in my garden, dismantle the studio and bring all the wool up to my bedroom for sorting, the studio will house the furniture and furniture materials, and I will have to look through what remains to find out which bits need to be smashed, which bits can be sold, and generally clean up the dust from the work so far. Then we will be cleaning the first pieces, moving the gaudi chair, which is a very old piece of work into the house for cleaning, moving the items which have been sitting in the studio awaiting my donating them to charity into my office area for selling off to pay for materials. I do miss my shoes, however. Life is better with shoes.

 

Now I am sure a considerable number of people will think that given that I take care of a very time consuming old lady and a giant property, that I am quite insane for putting this much work into creating more work for myself, but after the experience of the last twenty years or so, I think my future lies in directions other than unemployment and miserable penury followed by death.

 

Ultimately, I think the games will make more of a living, but in the meantime, making some funky entertaining grown up toy furniture to entertain the FT and Tatler readers sounds like a plan. I do need money for this angle however, which is proving to be a bit of a hurdle at the moment.

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creativity, motivation, politics

Boris the Conservative Muse

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First of all, sorry about the lack of posts. I was a bit upset at the whole survey debacle. I had hoped that Scotland had grown out of the divisive poor self image crap that has led, on a personal basis to my being unemployable because I work too hard, and on a national basis, to a bunch of sheep playing follow my leader instead of developing their own political ideas. In addition, twitter decided to block the website, and so it was not really possible to do anything with the site until they actually read their emails.

 

I cannot see this being successful for the future, and so I choose to simply opt out of the argument. I was posting pro independence posts for long enough before I did the survey, and the response was overwhelmingly negative on both sides. In short, Scotland is a bit fail, and this is unlikely to change within my lifetime.

f

It is an interesting process, developing the ina disguise concept for a different person, who has this time been deliberately selected rather than the usual involuntary process. For Boris I have taken a small crowd of unemployed furniture, and rather than starving or threatening it, which would not have worked at all, I have invested time and money in it. (rather a lot of money, I had to sell my back up computers and shoes, amongst other things, to pay for the materials, some of which had to be imported from India)

 

I am sure any conservative would be delighted that my artwork has never cost anybody else anything. I spent the early part of my life overworking, avoiding having a social life and buying materials. I now have two rooms full of materials and tools, and because I cannot leave the house due to caring for my mother and her property 24/7, I now have time to do something with them. They will also be delighted to hear that we cannot access any of the services we are entitled to, as our local council is so corrupt that they openly admit to gunning for your house and savings if you try to use anything. Basically the only way around this is to not save anything in the course of your life.

 

Anyway, the Boris development is going to expand the existing threads to the work, so the Boris Experience, as such, has not really started yet. I do like the new ideas and confidence, however. Time will tell if this is a good development.

 

I did write about fear of status loss being a factor in people’s votes for independence. I have been chewing this over, since it is something I know rather a lot about. A good part of my family’s behaviour towards me and their mother was about status anxiety. I had a frankly crap, and certainly cheap education in comparison to them, and I am the most qualified person in the family.

 

It seems to me that status is a very destructive thing, to gain and to fear losing. It leads to irrational and poor behaviour towards others. Class is not the problem, money is not the problem. Status, real or imaginary, is the problem. If we start to say ‘fuck status’ where does that leave us?

 

Probably a lot happier, and certainly more open to new ideas than the miserable people I have had the misfortune to deal with.

 

I am in Tatler for the December issue, not in person of course. I am sure they will be delighted to have the Boris experience next year.

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creativity, politics

The Boris Experience

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Haven’t bothered to write a post recently, as I have been busy working on the first pieces for the Boris Experience, which should be ready next month or so.

 

I have also changed tack significantly on the visual novel, and I think I will also work on one for David Wolfe as yet another freebie, since this worked relatively well with free books. As a prelude for the game I want to make featuring David, which is a real winner, I think it is probably a good idea, providing he doesn’t get annoyed about it.

 

The website is now fine according to Google, but Twitter is still not allowing me to post the website and so I have limited use for it. At least it forced me to look into security options.

 

I think Boris will appreciate the humour in this first set of items, thereafter I will be catching up with some reading for the book which will inevitably accompany the artwork.

 

In Tatler this month, with the Misery Mandala, so if you are a Tatler reader, look out for that.

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creativity, games, games

Creating visual novels

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Creating visual novels

First look for renpy or buy yourself a builder.  There are around five or so free builders online, but having bought one, I can tell you that this is a great option for adding bells and whistles.

 

Visual novels are particularly popular in Japan, but they are catching on everywhere as the ideas are often quirky and interesting.

 

From a user perspective, I personally find hitting enter over and over again pretty tedious, but then I cannot understand the fascination with comics and comic based art, so I am not a great example of a fan. I am more interested in it from the perspective of structure and branching storylines.

 

Do not involve an artist in your early dabblings, either you will waste weeks, or in my case months, for them to even pick your first picture and make it ‘perfect’ or you will waste the same amount of their time on ideas that you do not necessarily want in your finished product.  Far better to look for an approximate image online and use it as a stand in until your ideas gain some finesse.

 

One of the many good things I am learning from doing this, is the nature of scripting and how instructions have to be broken down to create scenes.  This is why I am doing it, so I am not quite so lost in the fog of learning to script.  I think it is a worthwhile thing to do.

 

In terms of the money you can make, there are a few kickstarter projects requesting tens of thousands of dollars for creating great artwork, and potential customers seem to be throwing money at it based upon a few visuals.  If that is your bag, this is probably the best way to raise yourself some capital before you even finish the project. Hardened visual novelists put out three or four a year to make a living, so at an estimate, each one is bringing in $300 or $400 dollars a month once their marketing gets going. Certainly beats writing, which brings in nothing at all for years and then if you are very fortunate, you might scratch a living for five more before you either hit the big time or fail.

 

I am going for a different option, which is to see what I can do without assistance, and then punting it on Steam if I create a good enough product.  Steam has two layers of prequel creation, Early access, which costs around $100 or so to put your product on there for perusal and purchase, and they have a hidden section for trialling ideas, which if you have a few graphics ready, is a good way of gauging reactions to your efforts.

 

As far as I can see from my brief bits of research, fans of the genre like great graphics more than a great storyline.  They are comic fans, after all, so far, but I have seen extended versions, such as 80 days, which are a bit more fulfilling in terms of story, and heavy on style rather than detail in terms of graphics.  I hugely enjoyed 80 days, and so I am leaning towards this stylistic method of putting out a product.

 

Thereafter, I will return to learning to script whilst doing a couple more.  In the meantime I am working hard on the furniture line with a view to getting the photography done and the products sold off to pay for more products.  Thankfully I have found a great supplier in India for my chosen weaponry in terms of originality.

 

I am effectively extending the current themes, Jazz, Beach and Sheep in wolf’s clothing, although I kind of have Boris in mind whilst I am doing it.  You will see for yourself how this pans out in terms of a visual feast towards the end of next month, barring accidents.

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Work, work, work

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Work, work, work

work, work, work

Serious personal problems but I can report that work on the next few items is going very well.
I have created a range of items that take a few minutes every day for a month or so, at twelve hour intervals, which take up a horrific amount of space, but once I have completed the prototypes, I will have products which can be made in batches and have a serious amount of added value.
Possibly a little fussy for modern tastes, but you never know, perhaps I will start a trend for the decorative.
Have managed to get almost a thousand pounds worth of stuff I had lying around up for sale, slow and steady sales have meant I can continuously invest in the new lines.
Not in the mood for sewing just now, so I am working on the visual novel, and considering whether I want to write.  I tend to go a bit full focus on writing, so the issues with the house are bothering me a bit too much.
It is amazing how free your timelines become when you make a positive decision to ignore politics. I am very sad that so many people do not understand the problems they create.
 
Ina

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economics, politics

Alternative National Survey post 2

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I would like to say that this week has been hilarious, with the number of outraged lower middle class former New Labour Voters, who assume that if a piece of research is not sanitised so that you don’t know how small-minded and thoughtless your views are, it is automatically offensive.  It reminds me of a few years back, where people imagined that you could not say the word Muslim if there was a Muslim in the room.

 

Having worked with Muslims several times, they are not in the slightest bit offended if you say the word Muslim, question them about aspects of faith, or converse about anything at all, actually.  Likewise, it is not at all outrageous to point out that if you imagine there are no problems with the very limited amount of immigration in Scotland, you are kidding yourself on, or you hate other Scottish people, including a great many concerned Scottish Asians,  far more than you hate immigrants.

 

There is not a single point of view in that survey that has not been taken from real life situations.  If you have been fortunate enough to avoid them, good for you.  Other people, who you evidently do not know, have been severely affected by our lovely globalist EU experiment, migrants and native dwellers alike.

 

Having studied reasons for racism and expressions of racist sentiment, there is nothing unusual about the strain the minimal number of new arrivals have put on communities in Scotland.  Likewise there is nothing unusual about areas in England, who have borne the brunt of EU immigration saying that they would rather not have it any more as they are, in some cases literally starving.  Apparently many in Scotland have divorced themselves from this, preferring to listen to the totally offensive anti-Conservative (and in some cases anti English) rhetoric coming from the SNP this week, and I say this as someone who has voted SNP for years, and who strongly disapproved of the last thirty years of Conservative policy.

 

I am fortunate enough to have a very open mind, and to have a wide variety of experience to draw from for the purposes of tolerating the drivel that has been said to me this week.  Drivel on top of drivel, because as a middle class Scottish person, I have experienced appalling treatment by the very people expressing such outrage over the selection of views portrayed in the survey.  It is perfectly OK for such people to hate other Scottish people, and they like to let rip if they imagine that you have something they don’t.

 

So, as far as exposing hypocrisy is concerned, the project thus far is a big success.  270 people bothered to read the last blog post on this, but 200 of them were too scared to answer the survey questions, despite the fact they are anonymous, because they imagine if they don’t express their views, then I am somehow invalidated.

 

Grow up Scotland.  This is no way to get what you want.

 

I will post the results when I have a proportionate representation of Scottish views.  This may take some time, since apparently people have been trained out of saying what they actually think.

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