Here I am at the edge

  The Darkest Hour There is a  proverb that says the darkest hour is before dawn. If I was to believe that, I could hope that next year could see me earn a publishing contract for my romance novel , as I said if I believed the proverb but with odds of 6,000 - 1 against me I am not holding any hopes. This is my darkest hour, I don't know why I write this blog anymore, come to that why I write my short stories ; nobody buys them or reads the free blog. By the end of May 2022, I will have no e-books for sale on either Amazon or Draft2Digital ; I won't miss the $0.30 cents a month I used to make with sales.

 A fools game Gambling is at best a fools game, as you are more likely to lose than win - I speak from experience - but some gambles such as cryptocurrency are less of a gamble than throwing your money away. There is a man in Tokyo  who has ruined his life for Bitcoin shares; he embezelled Sony of over $150 million, and now faces a long prison sentence, not to mention the disgrace he will impose on his innocent family for his stupid crimes.

 Financial Times An executive from Sony , in Southern California is now under arrest for embezelling over $154 billion and turning it into Bitcoin . The police caught him as he tried to transfer the funds to an account in Tokyo .  The Financial Times financial expert has gone on record as saying BTC is worse than the worst Ponzi scheme as it is a no profit enterprise.

 Bitcoin is not a gamble I am amazed that for a country that is supposed to be plagued by the    austerity of being run by a Conservative Party  so many people are willing to throw money away by using cryptocurrency sites; I have no pity for them as there is information aplenty about this scam going back years.

  How to lose money fast For months, I have blogging that Bitcoin is a scam ; an article came out yesterday that a report from a BBC cryptocurrency miner was used to defraud a man in India  of his life's savings of £3,000. People remember the Golden Rule ; if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

Never Dream The world of Science tells us that dreams are the mind's escape from reality; what they don't tell you, as it would scare you awake is that having a dream can haunt you all your life. I used to dream of being a writer , but now my life has changed so much that I have an aversion to books . Once, the way to find me was to find a bookstore , now you are more likely to find me in a health food shop, not because I am a health food freak, but because they have food I haven't tried.

 The Forbin Project For many years, I was trying to find the name of a film about two super-computers that linked to threaten mankind - the film is called Collosus: The Forbin Project .  The film is about the power AI has on mankind, when scientists realise the computers are thinking beyond their demands, they pull the plug, only to be told "Turn the power on or we will destroy the planet."  You may consider this an unlikely event as AI needs power, but these days at times it is hard to tell who does what when robotics are taking over. Will there come a day when mankind ceases to be useful to AI?

 Some things never change As this blog has few readers I have not been tracking it as much as I used to, and this has proved what I had thought for years, I am the only person in the UK interested in my blog. I got more readers in Japan than here yesterday,

  Who watches the watchers? The medical definition for paranoia is the irrational fear of something that people are looking for you. I am not worried about dromes, cctv, or ID cards, but I do worry when I realise how close to science fiction written in the 70's the world is moving, and at an alarming rate, after all, who watches those who watch us? The only way you'll get noticed on cctv is if you do something to attract attemtion to yourself, the same goes with dromes; they circuit the planet, but the chances of being seen are so slim it is pointless worrying unless you do something big to attract attention. My concerns are that the new diseases coming out are mimicking minor ailments that people get through the year, what was once nothing is being treated as a major incident. I sneeze throughout the year as I suffer from hayfever, and I cough as a result of years of drinking coffee which dries your throat, both are symptoms of Corona and Omicron .

 Logan's run  In the 70's there was a film valled  Logan's run ; the premise of the story is that people of a certain age were huned like animals for no more than being regarded as being too old. I can see that day on the horizon for this world, if you think it was only a science  fiction film , and would never happen, remember within a lifetime, hand-held ciommunicators have gone from sci-fi to being normal, and men on the moon don't even make the headline if there is a disaster. With Corona and Omicron able to mimic the symptoms of other illnesses anyone showing signs would become a target of hate; I have all the symproms, but not the illness because I am 65, and have been unable to sleep soundly for ages.

                                                                    Don't panic!!! According to the symptoms, I have Omicron . Dry throat, and a harsh cough comes from drinking too much coffee. Mild muscle pains come from age & rheumatism. Extreme tiredness comes from suffering from insomnia. I get night sweats on occasions, but that is because of depression .

  Dying with Dignity I have, and will continue to, support the wish for  Assisted Dying , this wish is nothing new to me as I have seen several relatives struggle to live with cancer  and watch their families torn apart with the pain of knowing by law they could not put their loved one to peace.  I think I may have a liver disease known as Primary Biliary Cirrhosis https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/primary-biliary-cirrhosis-pbc/ . This could end up with me needing a liver transplant, but I'd rather a good organ be given to a young person with a life ahead, rather than me. Christians will argue it is against God's law, but if you love someone it is hard to watch them suffer endlessly, rather than put them out of their pain to die on their terms, and in their way. I know the pain it would involve to see someone live with cancer as my father fought it for several years before he passed away.

  The British Empire In my opinion, there will never be another Empire as grand as the British Empire . There are several issues that have brought empires from the Romans to the British to their knees. A) An empire that stretches needs to have an economy that can fund it. B) The empire would a huge armed force to maintain peace, and control the local insurgents. If the American had not saved Europe in World War 1 , I still think there would have been World War 2 . only the driving force would have been the fight against communism and Russia .  The Russian Revolution would still have gone ahead, as the people were willing to fight their leaders, even if they had won WW1.  History would have changed at this point, as I doubt Stalin  would have been the leader of a powerful Russian state, as it was at the time.  People like Jeremy Corbyn who think Russia is the enemy, odd for a person who claims to support Communism , are living in a world that could have existed, but back in the days of

 The Missing Readers There are several reasons why I didn't blog earlier today; for once I had an enjoyable day out in the city, with my wife and our youngest daughter. With few readers, I didn't feel the need to keep blogging as often as I once did, this lead to a feeling of depression as to why I continue to write . I have many stories I could write, but what is the point if there are no readers ?

What would have happened?  What happened on December 7th, 1941 has gone into the history books as " The day of Infamy ." To my mind, the Japanese excuse about forgetting about the International Date Line ranks among the feeblest of excuses for anything; of course they knew about the IDL, Lord knows most junior schoolchildren can tell you about it. Minutes after the attack there was a heated discussion about what to do. The Air Force Commander wanted to push home a second attack, but he was beaten by the logic of General Yamamto - Naval OIC - who said "We'll need the fuel to defend the ships on our return; another reason not to lauch the second attack is that the pilots would not be able to see through the columns of oil ablaze from the air strike minutes before.  Ten days before the attack, a Naval Lieutenant who used to walk in the hills around the base, reported sick looking as if he'd been in a fight. Three days before the attack, he went on one of his walks a

  Another restless night Last night was another night that reminded me why I spent so many forcing myself to stay awake. It wasn't the urge to write that kept me awake, what keeps me awake these nights is that I have many stories buzzing in my mind, but no desire to write as this blog is not read. Once have been in a state of depression it never leaves you, all you do is find your way to cope with the darkness that you feel.

  Marine LePen's five year plan While I still support Marine Le Pen 's desire for France to come first; I see another of her plans has a flaw. If you are going to deny immigrants benefits until they have worked for five years, how are they to get jobs to work.  I think a policy similar to the one Canada employs is better, with a caveat; if you have someone to say they'll pay for you, then you may enter, but after a set-time you must show willing to work even if only a part-time job.

  A study of Universities If I came in for a large amount of money, after paying off our debts; giving my family some money, and setting up a forever home for animals that have nowhere to live I would love to do one thing. The one thing I would love to do is a study of Universities, not study at a university, but to travel the world to judge the qualifications of univerities. An example is Cairo University  in Egypt  where the liver specialist who is seeing me was taught. I probably know more about my body than he ever will, after two biopsies, and several scans, all he can say is he has no idea what it wrong with me. In a year it has fallen from 550th ranked in the world to 600th - I know that is terrible - outside the communist states it is the lowest ranked.  Does this mean it has fallen, or have there been 50 new "university" classed schools in a year. Less than a mile from our house there was a "university," yet you could pass it without noticing it. All it was

 Wildman of the woods From the Basque regions of Northern Spain  though France and into Germany there is a myth about a "Wildman of the woods," in Spain he is called Basajuan, in France he is Cernunos. You could argue that this only a myth - a story passed on ny mouth for generations - but the story occurs in most regions in some form, so it is just a myth , or were there forrest dwellers eons ago? For my view, the story of both Big Foot , Loch Ness Monster , and the Yeti hold water. Because nobody has seen them does not mean they don't exist, after all, National Geographic explorers discovered a fish they thought had been extinct for centuries last year.

  The advantage of not being rich There are few advantages to not being rich, but for the second time in as many months, I thank the Lord we are not wealthy enough to be foolish enough to invest in Bitcoin or any other Cryptocurrency . Last night Bitcoin lost over $57 billion, and I said before the money lost cannot be traced as it is not money but numbers if you deal with cryptocurrency. The only guarantee you have with this scam is by dealing with it you WILL come to the attention of the  police from several countries as these deals involve any crime you can name.