Month: August 2022

Zombies? Perhaps…

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Prepped for it, exposed to the ideas of it and potentially waiting for it. Gen X are the ones in line for this I feel, and possibly quite a few of Gen Y as well. And I wondered why. Why the need to have it as a mainstream idea, they are not without uses and this one has been carried forward like a security blanket. As if the idea of an outbreak leading to a zombie apocalypse has been so thought through and expected, that it can’t be let go of. And I’m sure the idea of it may seem silly to some who have not considered it, but to a certain group of people, or section of society should I say, I suspect they know precisely what I am talking about.

I have already given a brief overview of my thought in The Zombie Thing article, and touched upon the idea of the dead coming back in The dead walk the earth, but could it be that it was never meant to be that way. The idea of it was. People fear people, that’s no secret, but the idea of people being turned or mutating into the very worst version of a human is one of our deepest fears perhaps. The number of humanoid monsters and demons that are depicted in movies and films is like that for a reason, because we can identify with it, however horrible it is. And that is what makes it even scarier, seeing part of you in it, and it in you.

But what if they pre-program us to behave in that way when faced with what appears to be a similar scenario. There seems something familiar about it, so we do what makes us feel most comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. If we remember ‘seeing’ someone else react a certain way, even if only on the television, it is still a reference of experience, or at least our brain may treat it as such. Two things spring to mind, even if only a loose connection to what I mean. Firstly, a Derren Brown trick in one his tv series years ago, where a chap was playing a zombie video arcade game, and then he was ‘hypnotised’ by Derren to think it was happening. Add in some actors in make-up, lighting and everyone else playing along, and he thought it was real. Even without being hypnotised, just having actors, make up and scenery can do the job tricking our mind into believing that is our reality at that moment. We have two processing centres in our brain (they say), called primary processing centre, which obviously acts as the first response. Followed by the secondary processing system, which then takes over after the initial reaction to review it and make sure it was appropriate. But as we know, in a split-second life or death decision making situation, you will have to reply on the primary response centre. Whatever information it is accessing for that moment is what you will have to go with, so if you don’t have very good reasoning skills or reactions on the spot, you will fail. No pressure or anything.

The second thing that came to mind, in two parts, or rather two things rolled into one. A company started doing zombie simulation ‘games’. Where you had an area, actors pretending to be zombies, and the thrill ride of pretending the outbreak was happening but in safety and a big comfort zone. The other tie in being the film The Fifth Wave – whereby they fool children into thinking there are aliens/infected that have to be killed – but really they are other humans. We appear to have a bulk of crisis actors across the board today, and although it might seem far-fetched to think we could actually have a zombie virus outbreak. I sure as hell believe they could easily fake one. As has been done with so many other situation, scenarios and events.

But that does not mean to say the time was wasted or misspent, there may well be a time coming where we have to consider if our fellow man is really so, and that something dark does indeed lurk and dwell in this realm. You never know when there may come a time for all that training and thought to be put to good use…

(c) K Wicks

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There Was Always Going To Be Two

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It was always going to be this way it seems, where society splits into two factions (at a minimum). The empire and the rebellion, for a dramatic portrayal. I wonder whether that’s why they were so keen to get everyone on board with their ‘health program’, and now seem intent on a follow through ‘digital program’ to get everyone trapped into their version of society. To make us play along with their rather grand delusion of controlling everyone by way of technology. Integrating us with their systems, building them around us.

Through my usual way of listing films, I will show how it was always going to be this way. Us and them.

Star Wars – The Empire and The Rebellion, a constant battle between light and dark, and a good motivator for some. If you are one of those people, you know what I mean.

Bladerunner – against a corporation, as is the theme for many a film (Resident Evil, Total Recall, Eagle Eye, Die Hard etc), but what struck me about the film, is that although it was about a future with synthetic humans, everything else seemed to be run down. As if they deliberately held down the rest of society to be the most powerful. Obvious, but it still impressed upon me.

Alita – a recent film, but one which is very clear about you down there, and them up there. People fighting each other and desperate to have a chance to be like them. It’s an odd movie, and quite sad really.

Elysium – Similar theme to the above, a better world hovering just above you, you can see it, but you can’t go there. They have everything you don’t, and again people’s lives are based around trying to attain what they are excluded from, for no reason other than manufactured reasons by way of design. Another sad film.

The Matrix – very us and them, from early on. Against the machines generally, but by way of a percieved threat while in the mainframe. Hunted by the agents, and inevitability, of course.

Demolition Man – a great example (albeit a slightly cheesy one) of people taking over, and deciding what is right, and best, and safe for everyone. Forcing people who do not fit into the plan to live in sewers. I saw that as a very clear sign of just how extreme it could get, under the guise of ‘for everyone’s good’.

Oblivion – slightly different because the movie switches halfway through, it is us and them, but not who you think. And they have a cunning use of exclusion areas due to ‘radiation zones’ leading to the lie being continued.

Logans Run – this film is a bit further along in the split of society, with almost no-one left on the outside, but one man. Peter Ustinov playing a wonderful role, but showing how quickly it can change and disappear. The people who have been living in a domed city have no idea about outside and what the world once was, instead being kept in a controlled environment with a maximum age allowed of 30 years old. The Island (2005) has similar undertones to it, but is a much darker view of what people may be kept and bred separately for.

There are plenty of unhinged people with disturbing ideas out there, and most of them are of no concern to anyone and go about their day keeping their unsettling thoughts and ideas to themselves. But it is when someone of that ilk decides to step out of their head and enact those thoughts, then we have a problem. As well we should. Things don’t just happen instantly or by accident it seems, they are engineered and are occurring over a period of time, with very clear markers of concern that should be recognised and acknowledged. We may not know what to do about what is coming, but we don’t need to deny it’s there, or agree to be part of it. Some may think that if they go along with it now, it will be easier for them later, having already been well groomed for a points-based scoring system. Incentives and rewards are how it starts, then the requests become more unreasonable and will always descend into demands and punishment if you don’t. Same shit, different day.

(c) K Wicks

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A little bit of privacy

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I gave it thought after explaining what privacy meant in childhood for me. It was limited and coveted, and I snatched it up where I could.

If you grew up with siblings, you might remember mornings being noisy, and hectic. Sleepy and having to get ready for school. The journey to which being noisy and busy, either walking or on the bus. Then you get to school, surrounded by lots of people, maybe you get a few minutes to yourself in the toilet or at break, but not often. There was stuff to talk about, and things to do before you had to go back to the confinement of the classroom.

After a long day of constant people and learning, back home again to then do the domestic routine. Getting to be able to go out after school used to be time to unwind. Even though usually spent with friends, it didn’t seem as demanding. Just relaxing and checking things out or being silly. Weekends and school holidays used to be the best for knowing you didn’t have that stupid daily bind. And if you were able to be out of the house, it was great. No-one knew where you were, what you were doing. It was nice, as is the nostalgic thought of it, because I enjoyed those moments then as I do now. My mother wanted to know what I was always up to, and I had an older sibling who was not my ally. And as you learn along the way, some ‘friends’ can’t be trusted either. So, trying to find a bit of peace in yourself in your own time can be a full-time job sometimes. I guess that’s why it seems that privacy and freedom go hand in hand.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t ever go away just because you get older. It turns into employment instead of education, where you still have a schedule and it needs to be maintained. It can be the same for people who chose to stay at home and bring up the kids rather than employment (or insanely juggle both). I realise the need for just five minutes on your own sometimes is necessary for everyone. Especially if you spend a lot of time around people, not everyone understands how draining it can be. Even if it’s your nearest and dearest. (The funny videos on the internet showing this by way of a closed bathroom door and a horde of animals and kids outside waiting). And now there is a new world of busy without even leaving your house or being in the company of anyone, you have The Internet. Where you can feel surrounded and drained without physically being around people at all, it’s an odd thing really. That we allow the perception of it being real, and that they are people we are engaging with, therefore use real emotions and time to deal with it. Maybe that’s why we have so many bots taking up people’s time and stirring the pot perhaps – if that is the case. To take that energy that people freely give and leave them drained and unsatisfied. Not just the fake profiles, real people can do it too, strange though that so many allow it from people who aren’t anywhere near them, or anything to do with them, or who aren’t even people.

Maybe it’s been with us now for so long, the internet, that people don’t understand what privacy and time to yourself is anymore, that it has lost its meaning. Or for some, perhaps they were never comfortable with just their own company, so the idea that they can be ‘with people’ all the time is better for them, which is why they do not complain about the digital society taking over every aspect of life. They welcome it because it gives them a feeling of security, where the previous society caused them anxiety and uncertainty. The digital one appears to offer a friendly network of life and opportunity, people and virtual experiences. Where they will monitor you to tailor everything to you, making it seem as if you are important. And you are, in coding and for numbers only. They need a certain number of ‘players’ to make it work, and see it through to conclusion, and so far, unfortunately, there seems to be lots of willing bodies happy to oblige them. But what of the ones who do not wish to play the game, to insert ourselves into this buckled mainframe and help to create their fantasy illusion of omnipotent overseer. Like skynet, but with a face. I guess we have to see what happens next and how they plan to target the remaining freedoms we have, and those who choose to stand up for them…

(c) K Wicks

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Apple and Blackberry Cake

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After foraging some blackberries, I decided to give apple and blackberry cake a go.

186g blackberries

2 x small gala apples

2 eggs beaten

1/2 tps cinnamon

4 oz butter

6 oz demerera sugar

8 oz self raising flour

orange zest

1tps baking powder

Oven at 160°c (fan assisted or 180 if not), line loaf tin with baking paper, or butter so the cake doesn’t stick.

Beat the eggs and greate the two apples including the skin down to the core into the egg, put in cinnamon and orange zest.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the two together until you have a big bowl of runny, lumpy goo. Now add the flour and baking powder until you have a decent cake batter, then stir through most of the blackberries, careful not to break them up too much. Save a few for putting on top before it goes in the oven, and I sprinkled a small bit of demerera over the top as well.

Bake for around 50 mins to over an hour. I had to check a few times because it browned well early on. The knife test did it though, and it was perfect at about 1 hour and 5 minutes I think.

It was rather nice.

(c) K Wicks

Sawfly Larvae

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They look like caterpillars but aren’t. I haven’t had any before in the garden so quite excited to see different things this year as the garden develops. I found them while still small and only a tiny section of redcurrant leaf missing, but it soon spiralled and they have stripped a small section. It doesn’t really show and hasn’t harmed the plant, so just let them be.

(c) K Wicks

The sum of all recent… (poetry)

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The sum of all recent

And worldly fears

Destroying the future

Now taking our years

Time we should realise

That can’t be redone

A darkness that’s spreading

We just can’t outrun

But if you could see

And now understand

That what did occur

Was meticulously planned

And put into place

From the longest age

Laying foundations

And setting the stage

For a sinister plan

No longer in mind

An audacious plot

The heist of mankind

There’s still but a chance

Although maybe slim

That we don’t have to be

At their beck and their whim

~

We do not have to be slaves to the system

(c) K Wicks

Farmer vs Pharma

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The attack on farmers continues, and how our food is produced, transported, sold and consumed. All neatly tied up by rules, regulations, quotas and targets. Under the guise of ‘for the planets health’ because, you know, they’ve already used it towards people and too many lapped it up. Imagine handing someone a strait-jacket and they put it on themselves and let you tie it up. That’s what’s happening here.

It’s a slow strangulation of resources and current sustainability. Lots of people have noticed, and aren’t having it, and rightly so. Covered previously in It seems an attack, Because from what they seem to be trying to roll out is worse, won’t work and will ruin the systems and land already in place. Which is the point. Farmland being appropriated for other use, orders for rewilding and paid culls on the horizon. Mysterious fires of wheat fields, food processing plants and no doubt they will declare more animal-based infections and cull loads more. It takes out a huge part of the food chain we rely on, while they simultaneously stop processes in other areas. They will have their own islands, areas and compounds where everything is just fine. But for everyone else, they want to upset the applecart.

And while they slowly try to remove the word, livelihood and previous terms associated with farmer, it gets replaced with a new ‘feeder’. Big pharma, wanting to pump you full of chemical food, needing medications to survive and for them to be the new cradle to grave overseer. So far, they have just been the nanny for a few decades (like the one in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle), quietly assisting and watching, waiting. Now making their move, when ‘suddenly’ there is a huge need for pharmaceutical intervention with lots of adverse reactions to the recent trials on the mostly unsuspecting populations in various countries.

But it seems a small chance of hope is spreading, farmers are following the initial lead of the truckers and trying to fight back by way of protest. All the industries as we know them will be obsolete if they have their way. Just robots doing everything with minimal people contact and interaction. Or at least that’s the picture they paint of what they are shooting for. There appears little or no room for normal everyday people just getting on with their lives in their vision, so it should be a concern for everyone where this is all going. Because it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere good…

(c) K Wicks

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