Mutter Bundle #12: When You Hear “Beamish Is Just Another Clydebank,” an Opus About Truth and Lie Is a Must
14 Feb 2025 20:48
Clydebank, Scotland.
17 Feb 2025 07:07
Have you ever noticed how Truth is often treated like an unwanted stepchild in terms of being forced to jump through the hoops just to be half-acknowledged, being scrutinised left, right, and centre as if it were a dodgy banknote under a UV light, then dragged over hot coals for every minor misstep, like a schoolboy by a tough-as-nails headmaster?
"Look at you! Why are you dressed like that? Your handwriting is a mess! What's that grammar? Where’s the punctuation? You cannot even string a sentence together! Your argument is too emotional! Too dry! Too complicated! Too simplistic! Too vague! Too direct! Too indirect! That metaphor? Overdone. That example? Irrelevant! Why don’t you smile more? What's that grin on your face now? You sound too sure of yourself! No, now you’re hesitating too much!''
Have you also noticed how Lie, on the other hand, slips into the golden child’s seat with effortless ease, waltzing in and basking in standing ovations for nothing more than a casual trust-me-mate? Or, to go back to the family metaphor, it barely mumbles half a sentence through a mouthful of food, one hand idly picking its nose at the dinner table, only to be met with a chorus of awws and a proud mother’s affectionate ruffle of the hair, whispering, "What a clever little genius."
And Truth is just left standing there, holding a full report with footnotes that no one could care less about until someone sighs, shakes their head at Truth, and, with a mix of pity and exasperation, gestures toward Lie with a grin and says, "Now, my dear, that’s how you make a point!"
17 Feb 2025 07:56
You know, even the being-betrayed-by-the-person-you-thought-was-the-closest-to-you coin has another side.
Think about it.
If you can walk through that, however wounded, and come out in one piece, there’s virtually nothing in the minefield of human relationships you won’t be able to navigate. A calm posture and a philosophically weighted mind that follow aren’t such a meagre recompense for it.
18 Feb 2025 05:12
Beamish Museum, England. Some gems from its transport fleet.
21 Feb 2025 18:08
Two Apple letdowns – one meh, one WTH.
I mean...
It’s as if the folks in Cupertino have recently came to conclusion that too much of a good thing is, well, too much, and went ahead with diluting the entire Apple experience. And oh boy, dilute they did.
1. iPhone 16e is out. Hur-flippin-ray. Insert a picture of ever-so-happy Droopy the Dog here.
£/$ 599.
Emmm...
Cheapest USB-C iPhone with Apple AI? Yes.
Cheapest decent iPhone, provided you still don’t mind Lightning? No. Not until brand-new iPhones 14 or even 13 are still hanging around in retail stores.
In my opinion, it’ll be a fairly solid buy once the price drops by around £/$ 100, especially if Apple releases a Product RED version to colour things up. But right now? It’s a pretty meh affair, if you ask me.
2. Now, onto something far more serious than a so-so handset. Apple has decided their your-stuff-is-super-secure-super-private-with-us honeymoon with UK customers is over, casually waved its anti-Midas wand, removed the Advanced Data Protection feature from iCloud in the UK, and just like that, end-to-end encryption is gone.
Sources:
https://news.sky.com/story/apple-removes-advanced-security-tool-over-uk-government-row-13314003
W.T. actual H.
OK, OK, Apple was apparently pressured by the UK government, but I can’t help wondering whether they really had no option but to give in, or if they simply opted for the easy route of least resistance.
25 Feb 2025 22:12
Admiral Insurance. Customer Service review.
My rating:1/5
Truly appalling communication. So poor, in fact, that at times it feels as though they are deliberately mocking you.
I mean, rarely do I find myself in a situation where asking a company a few simple, straightforward (or so I naively thought) questions, questions that would help me better understand their product and manage my expectations, spirals into an endless back-and-forth. Yet here I am, grasping for answers, trying to extract information piece by piece while their responses leave me wondering: do my emails arrive only in fragments, as if only a few selected words make it through while the rest vanishes into thin air?
This is one of those instances. A conversation that feels less like dialogue and more like shouting into the wind, or pleading with a brick wall that neither hears nor cares.
Even when it reaches the point where I decide to simply log a complaint, clearly outline the resolution I want, and request their final response, they reply by telling me to... contact their claims department. And all this before the policy has even commenced.
If time travel were an option, I would most definitely go back and warn my past self never to get involved with Admiral Insurance.
