I've Been Doing Some Reading Lately

Hello, how are you?  I know, it's been over a week, but what can I say...

As the title says I have been doing some reading lately, and a few of the books that I have read have been completely different...  For me that is.

Firstly there is the fantastic book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon.  I know, I am late to the whole thing again because there's a stage version of it that has just won several awards, and there are also talks in place to make it into a film with Brad Pitt producing apparently (that doesn't mean that he will be in the film by the way, because he doesn't always feature in films that he is a producer for - he is a great actor though).

For those who don't know, the central character of the story (Christopher Boone) is someone who suffers from Aspergers according to the blurb on the back (it is not specific in the book, and Mark Haddon said that he left that completely open to interpretation).  While outside wandering he finds a poodle dog named Wellington on a neighbour's yard dead with a garden fork in it, and he decides to try and find out what happened.  The book is a fascinating read because Christopher is also the narrator of the tale, and it is written as though the character himself was writing it, so you get his workings out, his thoughts, his puzzles, and all sorts of really interesting stuff that just adds so much to the whole thing.

Some people might think that these things are superfluous, but I think that they are necessary and by the end it is almost like you are inside the mind of that character, and you completely understand him and feel for him.  The book has some great surprises and takes some fantastic twists and turns.  I was enthralled by the book.

Before that I read the book The Pearl by John Steinbeck, which was another really good read.  It told the story of mexican pearl diver Kino, and as wikipedia says is an exploration into man's greed.  People dive for pearls hoping to make money by selling them to make their lives better, and Kino seems to have found the greatest pearl ever, and this book is basically the story of what happens to him once he has found it.  It also talks about the superstitions that people have and how they "read events".  It was another good book by Mr Steinbeck, and I look forward to eventually reading more his work (I've read another of his books lately as well - Of Mice And Men, another fantastic read).

If truth be told read On The Road by Jack Kerouac a couple of years ago and, to be honest, I think that I really forcing myself to read it and maybe didn't enjoy the book because of that reason and it was the first fictional book that I had read in over ten years.  As I've said to Louise recently, I will read that again because now that I am more into reading I might at some point enjoy the book.  There were parts about On The Road that I really enjoyed, and I think that I could get much more of a kick out of it if I read it again some time in the future.  That is a reason why I have been reading Steinbeck, because I want to get into some serious classic American literature.

Where did I get this image from?

After finishing the Mark Haddon book I read a Marlon Brando biography written by former actress Patricia Bosworth, which told me so much about the man that I hadn't known.  It was a fascinating read, full of some great tidbits, and I really did enjoy reading it, even if at times I felt awful that he didn't recognise how great an actor (and presence) that he was.  It is a shame that it was a wasted talent, and I think that he could have done so much more if, to be honest, he hadn't been so much of a pain in the neck to a lot of people.  I know that he was a force of nature, but in a way it would be nice to see what would have happened if he had not been so much like that, but then would he be the same actor that he was?  That is just my thinking after reading about his life.  I do know that from reading the biography I'm not sure if I fancy reading his autobiography, because he is so self-deprecating about his own talent.  His acting in The Godfather, Streetcar, and all those classics are absolute gold dust acting wise.

When I finished the Marlon Brando book on Sunday morning at about half past one in the morning at work I started on the book The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrain (I hope that I have spelled that correctly).

The story is set around the period of the Chinese Song dynasty (960-1279), and is about a young 12-year old boy named Haoyou Gou whose father is killed by Di Chou, the first mate on a ship. Di is envious of Haoyou's father Pei Gou because of Haoyou's mother's beauty.  He believes that by killing Pei, that he could eventually have Pei's wife as his own.  I could carry on, but I would spoil the whole story, but suffice to say that I really enjoyed the book so much that it has become a personal favourite.

The adventures that Haoyou and his cousin Mipeng get involved in are amazing to read, and the fact that the whole Kublai Khan coming from Mongolia to invade China and then looking at Japan is going on in the background adds so much to the beautiful tapestry that is weaved throughout with gorgeous scenery and character descriptions that really take you into that world.  I was completely lost in that world and couldn't put the book down.

As I said I started reading The Kite Rider around half past one in the morning on the Sunday, and I finished it at around one o'clock on Monday morning at work.  I don't read that much at home, so all in all I read that book in less than ten hours!  That is how much I enjoyed the book.

There we go then, something completely different for one of my blogs then - book reviews.  I enjoy all four of those books.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

April 29 2013 (42 years, five months, and three days old).

What to talk about

Hello.  How are you?  I'm not too bad.  I could moan, but I don't want to.  I'm trying to stay positive.

What to talk about then?

Well, this isn't my first attempt to start writing a new post since the last time.  I just gave up because they weren't going anywhere.  Perhaps it's because I am too busy working on the music blog, where I almost have the first two parts ready to post up.  The first part is written and waiting for +Dean Leivers to put his vocal onto a song for it, and the second part has been started and just needs Dean's vocal on.  I've recorded more backing tracks for the album I'm going to be talking about, and it's going to be a long slog through it all as well, but I'm sort of looking forward to it.

The first part alone is an introduction as well as chatting about the first song on the album.  The second part has been started as I say, and I'm not sure whether it will just be about the second song on the album or more than one song (I've done the music for that third song as well and sent it to Dean, so that is in hand.

I was absolutely bowled over by his work on the McCartney song Junk, and we are slowly but surely working our way through replacing those earlier recordings as well since I've sent the backing track for Every Night to him as well.  Boy is that a lot of singing required.

So, the album I'll be writing about is George Harrison's triple set All Things Must Pass, which will be followed by John's album Plastic Ono Band.  Then that might be 1970 finished with, although I am not sure whether to look at non-album single releases from the year such as Ringo's It Don't Come Easy (did Ringo write it or did George write it), and John's Instant Karma...  We'll get there when we get there won't we.  It's taking a while already.

What else is going on then?   Well,  not that much really.  I'm still without a car, so I can't really go anywhere, and I still need to fix my bicycle.  What can I say - I don't fancy walking to my garage half a mile away to work in the dark trying to find where a puncture is to repair it.

The Boston Marathon bombing - I was absolutely shocked by that!  It actually did make me cry.  It was an awful thing for someone to do.  This world just has so much wrong with it!  I am glad that the people have been caught who are to blame for it, but it's a terrible thing to happen.

Since my last post ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died, and the less said about that the better.  I wasn't a supporter obviously, but that is where I will lead it, because the facts that I've held onto aren't completely accurate according to some people, so I'd best leave the subject alone.  I will say that I thought the campaign to get the song from Wizard of Oz into the charts was childish.  I am a very big fan of that film musical and I actually think that it's good that a song like that can get onto the charts, but even I thought that it was in very bad taste.  I will say though that it is freedom of speech though and the public voted for the song to be in the charts by way of buying the song.

I don't really know what else to talk about.  That's the big problem you see - I'm not really doing that much to talk about.

I haven't done any work of late on songs that were unfinished during FAWM in February, and I'm not sure when I will get the chance to either.  Who knows?  I've got the whole 50/90 thing starting in July I think it is, and that is something altogether different.  I'm thinking of taking it easier, but when it comes I'll probably still absolutely throw myself into it like I did with FAWM.  There is another one of those "we'll see" things!

Anyway, a very quick post this, but a post none the less.

I hope that you all take care.

April 21st 2013 (42 years, 4 months, and 26 days old).

PS - If you want to check out some music that you may not have heard, my friends Amazing Planes and Blakshine have albums available on iTunes and elsewhere.

Minimum Wage

Hello everybody, how are you?

Me?  Not too bad.  Tired, but that's the norm isn't it!  These days you put more hours in to make the money to pay the bills don't you, unless you're one of the fortunate richer people who have had their income tax knocked down.  Now the government think that it is a good idea to suggest abolishing the minimum wage, which is an absolutely ludicrous idea.  I think they are basically trying to make things so bad for the lowest earners that there will be a rise in the number of people committing suicide, dying from hypothermia, dying of starvation, or dying from anything else that they can't afford.  What a bunch of absolute morons!

When we first moved three and a half years ago I think it is to where we live now, I was working a similar job that paid me minimum wage, and we were able to pay everything with a little left over (not much, but still).  Now I am still earning a minimum wage, we live at the same place, and we have had to forgo a few things such as the payment of contents insurance, because my pay just won't stretch to that.  I am actually starting to contemplate getting rid of the mobile broadband as well, but then that would mean that I would never get online because I never was able to afford to get someone in to set up broadband at home - the initial outlay for that was just too much!  I always intended to do it, but never afforded it!

Unfortunately, this bunch of absolute tossers that we have in power at the moment think it's right that while they have been in power they could double the income tax for the lowest earners whilst ensuring that the rise in the national minimum wage goes up at a smaller percentage than that of inflation - how good is that?  To add insult to injury, they are now on about abolishing the minimum wage altogether which would probably mean a return to me working for £2.25 or less an hour like I was doing before the National Minimum Wage was brought in at the beginning of April 1999.  I remember it well - my employers were talking about dropping half of the staff at the factory on the lead up to it's enforcement.

Before that I was working silly hours (and continued to do so in fact).  The official hours were eight in the morning until four in the afternoon monday to thursday, and then eight in the morning until I think one or two in the afternoon on Friday.  Shifts were available for the Saturday if we so wished.

I didn't do anything outside of work anyway really, so I started by doing a lot of Saturdays, then every Saturday, and then when we moved to new premises I decided to add to the hours in the week.  By the time the NMW came into effect, I was arriving at the factory for half past five in the morning, and then leaving at half past seven at night Monday to Friday (occasionally I would finish at 1 in the afternoon on the Friday), and the Saturday became half past five in the morning until two in the afternoon I think it was.  That is seventy eight and a half hours people at £2.25 per hour.  Even then that was a terrible wage.  That was after my initial starting wage of £1.75 per hour.  That first National Minimum Wage of £3.60 was incredible (I had to look that up because I thought that it was less than that).  It was an incredible rise in pay, but with it came it's problems.

My employers changed their rules relating to the pay of overtime, so that there were loopholes where those of us who were used to doing a certain amount of overtime actually got paid less money.  They basically changed how many hours we could work before receiving time and a half, as well as double time.  That was the worst part back then - on a Saturday we had previously got time and a half for the eight until midday work, which were the usual Saturday hours, and the extra four and a half hours were paid at double time.  Now, they were adamant about not opening up until six o'clock in the morning on the dot and closing at one o'clock in the afternoon and stipulated that we had not exceeded the standard hours to qualify for double pay.  I hear that a lot of employers pulled tricks like this back then.

As soon as the NMW came into force, all of us that worked there signed new contracts, which we had to do within our fifteen minute morning break.  The idea there was that we would just sign it without reading because we hadn't the time to read it all thoroughly, and then when anything happened they would bring up a new clause in the contracts we had signed (but not had the time to read).

If the government win this ludicrous idea to abolish the NMW then I will be evicted from where I live now because I am 99.9% certain that my present employers would be only too happy to drop our pay by perhaps four pounds per hour from the £6.19 per hour it is now to £2.19 per hour.  Why wouldn't they?  They can pay less to the employees while lining their own pockets even more.  I see that the MP's rate of pay isn't being dropped! Have they lost the ability to receive expenses?  I don't get any expenses!  Why should they?

These people asking for Iain Duncan Smith to live on benefits for a week I think need to change their demands - let's see how he gets along on them for a whole year without any outside help!  None of them have ever had difficulties and never will!  There is no working man's political party anymore.  Strangely that was originally the basis behind the Labour party, who were there to give people a separate choice to what they had with the Conservatives and the Liberals.

Basically I am having a rant here because I can see the stupidity of what they are thinking of doing.  They say that they are trying to equal things out, but I think that they all need to be checked by psychiatrists, because that is a ridiculous and unfathomable belief.  I just don't want to be evicted, end up homeless, or starve to death because some greedy bastard of an MP doesn't want to pay out of his own pocket for the mistakes that they themselves have caused!  I don't want to pay for their mistakes.

Let me put this more clearly - Because inflation has gone up to the degree where the shopping I bought three years ago for £25 is now £40, and I am paying twice the income tax (20% instead of 10%), as well as a higher rate of National Insurance (another form of Income Tax if truth be told because I don't think there will be such a thing as the State Pension when I'm that age, or for that matter a National Health Service that is worth a shit what with all the cuts they keep enforcing - they'll be asking if leeches can be used instead of tablets and medicines next to save on costs)!  Yes, the NHS is free for us to use, but only because workers pay for it through the National Insurance Contributions - contributions that we are required by law to pay!  You don't get anything in this world for nothing!

Anyway, rant over.  I have deleted some bits where I got very carried away.  I'm beginning to wonder whether I should have written this blog, but I'll see if I get any comments.

Thank you for reading.  Please take care.

1.04am Friday April 5th 2013 (42 years, four months, and ten days old).