“This is geo-engineering”

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Spoiler: It’s not.

But there are some loons out there who still believe that it might be. Like these two:

“Concerned Citizen” – if that is his real name – shares a 12 second video of Devon, UK, with the caption:

What part of this looks ******** normal to you?

Honestly, the only bit that looks a bit weird is the sunshine in October, but even in the UK, that can happen from time to time.

But he’s going on about the aircraft contrails in the sky (best place for them, by the way).

And as ScottFree – if that is his real name – adds:

First they gave us disease, next its famine. The West is clearly under attack by dark forces. These are not contrails, this is geo-engineering.

Either that or Devon finds itself right underneath the main trans-Atlantic route from Europe to the Americas. I wonder which it could be?

I guess the only sure fire way to know is to see what the geo-engineering boffins of the “dark forces” have geo-engineered for Devon. Tornadoes? Hurricanes? Hail? Locusts?

Ugh. It’s worse than that.

My god. It’s going to be vaguely mild and partly cloudy for the foreseeable future.

The absolute bastards! How could they?

I mean, if you did have the power to geo-engineer the weather everywhere, firstly, why would you do it over Devon, which is pretty, but is also pretty inconsequential?
And secondly, is that really the best that you can manage? A variation of two degrees and some sunny spells over a 8 day period? Is the apprentice in charge this week or something? Start with the basics and then maybe add a shower or two next Wednesday?

Honestly, sometimes it feels like these twitter people just make shit up because they’re morons.

Run done

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I finally got out and about yesterday morning, because my knee was feeling better and it was the last chance for the foreseeable future to get any sort of precipitation on my new jacket.

Things went… ok.

Look, the knee stood up to the challenge much better than I expected. And I avoided making any judgement on it yesterday, because I was waiting for whatever this morning threw at me after not going easy on it at all. But it’s all fine. It’s still purple, but it’s survived the run yesterday and the gym this morning and things are certainly improving.

The jacket did all that it could, but it didn’t have much to do. One brief shower was all that it got, but it did handle that very nicely. Its windproofing qualities were extremely good, and because of that, I can’t see myself wearing it too much over the summer months, when all you want is the cooling breeze on your skin. Maybe down on the coast in the early mornings, there might be some more use with the cool Atlantic air. And come winter… well, I can’t wait to get out and about in it.

There is a suggestion in the forecast that next Monday might be cool and damp. Maybe another test drive might be in the offing. But I do need to keep my proverbial powder dry, because it looks like the new 5-a-side season might be starting again next week.

Gone are the days where I could just do any and all of the exercise and not worry about there being any consequences the following day.

But I am still standing.

Changing a light bulb

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I don’t have vertigo. Or do I?

I am FINE with any sort of height, as long as I am attached to something secure. Equally, I am fine with looking at anyone else at any sort of height, as long as they are attached to something secure.

Remove the harness or the rope or whatever from this equation, and I am an instant mess.
Even if it is just a few metres. And while I can generally get my act together with a bit of clear thought and pure logic, it’s not a pleasant experience.

Still, harnesses abound below, and so I am fine with this video* (and I actually found it pretty interesting):

I do wonder what the idea of the helmets was at (famously) 123m up, but I suppose that any safety gear is better than none. But amazing to see a (seemingly) ordinary guy doing an extraordinary job.

If you liked this post, you might also like this post.

* OK, 3:40 wasn’t great, but generally…

Wet run?

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Full disclosure: I’m writing this yesterday. Otherwise I’d already know the outcome of this situation, see?

The story goes that I was given a rather nice, rather smart waterproof running jacket for my birthday. My birthday was a little while ago, but what with one thing and another, it’s taken a while to source the perfect jacket. After a few false starts, it arrived this week, and it is, as you will have deduced by the previous sentence, perfect.

Sadly, so is the weather, meaning that a run in a waterproof running jacket is sheer folly, given that there is no water to be proofed from.

But now here comes the good and the bad news.

A rogue October cold front heading into Cape Town today (tomorrow as I am writing this), is bringing with it several (or more) millimetres of water, in the form of rain. And this provides an ideal opportunity to test out the jacket. I was absolutely ready to go on a literal test run until last night (well, the night before last as you’re reading this) at about 10pm, when my left knee made at least some degree of contact with the corner of a rental trailer. The only real detail you knee-d to know about this encounter was that it was a genuinely unfair contest, with the few hundred kilos of steel trailer seemingly almost completely unharmed, and my outraged kneecap almost immediately pumping out an egg-sized haematoma in response. Was it my bad knee?, I hear you ask. Yes, of course it was.

Ice and rest and painkillers probably helped, and it’s just a bit stiff and sore. But while I managed a gentle gym workout yesterday (today as I am writing this), it does feel like any sort of impact work might be a bit much for the next few days.

And that’s sad, because the rain is very much just visiting for today and a bit of tomorrow, and I really want to test this jacket.

Watch this space. And avoid banging your joints on big chunks of metal.

Sound advice.

Well played, HIGNFY

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Spotted online yesterday. It made me laugh.

We mentioned the AI vs Creative Industry problem earlier in the week, and obviously, it goes for music as well. Thankfully, I’ve not heard much AI-generated stuff (yet), and if it’s anything like the images and the videos, then I’m really not sure I want to.

As for Thom’s more recent stuff – hey – I like to be challenged occasionally, but actually, it’s really not that bad.