That was 2023

 

It's just a ball of dust underneath my feet It rolls around the sun, it doesn't mean that much to me -Mighty Wings, Cheap Trick 

Well, the ball of dust has rolled around the sun once more, and 2023 has come to a close. What an absurd year. 

I lost my patience with anti-vaxxers and blocked huge swathes of them. I’m also on the verge of blocking a plethora of socially inept mitherers, stalkers, gossips, Tories and assorted other cranks. I have no desire to be like this, but I also have no desire to put up with their bullshit. I’m now left with few social options. 

Oh well. 

Life has its perks. Things have gone well in work. I got onto Universal Credit. I’ve watched my niece grow up; she’s around 18 months now. I’ve been to some great events – conventions, book signings, club nights – met new friends, met celebrities, movie stars, fight champions, Olympic medallists and authors, I visited new places, learned about family history and saw my blog surpass the million hit mark (it’s now 82,000 hits past that). 

This week I finally got accepted onto Bluesky, another rival to Elon Musk’s X. I’d applied to join I think in the spring, and had waited to be accepted on, as per the protocol. It’s a very similar layout to X, as is Mastodon and Threads: mostly status updates, with comments, reshares and likes underneath. ‘Search’ and ‘Feeds’ are separate tabs, unlike X, but have the same function. At the moment I’m just posting blog links. Current members include Congresswoman AOC, author Neil Gaiman, whistleblower Chelsea Manning and the New York Times. 

Have a good New Year, folks.

Shock: CBD is Bullshit!

Back in September I tried a little psychological experiment with CBD, cannabinoid oil, to see if it made any improvements to memory or anxiety. 

Shock. It did not. 

I had never expected it to. If a shitload of prescribed meds didn’t, the non-psychoactive elements of a cannabis plant won’t either. But people had been swearing by it, influencers promoted it and brands pumped out their own lines of CBD products. 

I’m not alone in calling bullshit on this movement. According to a new placebo-controlled study by The University of Arkansas, there’s little to back up the efficacy of CBD. 

‘The average reductions in worry were similar for the 300 mg and 50 mg cannabidiol doses, and the placebo… these findings suggest 300mg of oral cannabidiol does not attenuate cognitive symptoms of anxiety (i.e., worry), following both acute and repeated administration.’ 

Everyone’s personal circumstances are different. People deal with anxiety in different ways, and the condition is triggered by different situations person-to-person. Anxiety happens when your amygdala – your most primitive section of your caveman brain, in your antebellum – persistently tells you to expect a threat (when in reality, there isn’t one). Anxiety is not nervousness. Nerves can put you on edge before doing some thing risky, but anxiety wholly prevents you. It shuts you down and stops you from doing what you need to do. Dropping a bi-product of a plant into your mouth and expecting to solve problems such as these is wholly unrealistic. 

So what’s the point in taking it? 

Well, I’ve got it so I may as well continue using it ‘til I run out. 

But if you want my advice, if anxiety is putting a hold on your life, you need therapy. Talking to a professional will put new understanding and ideas into your situation. A good therapist will tell you what you don’t already know, and work with you to form a plan for moving forward.

Have You Bought a ‘Selfish’ Christmas Present?

A few months ago I was eating a steak dinner at my mum’s – a rare treat. (Well, medium rare, to be exact.) As tasty as it was, from a Saddleworth butcher if I recall, the table knife just wasn’t cutting it. Literally. I used a paring knife from the drawer, but my parents were prepared to battle on with standard cutlery. 

A plan formed. 

I never know what to get people for Christmas, but a set of steak knifes seemed to me to be a great present idea (regardless of what Glengarry Glen Ross will tell you). So, that was one parent sorted. Over the years, I've also bought numerous books that had been signed and dedicated to family members, because I needed to get them something, and I had no other idea... and there was the opportunity to meet a celebrity in the process. 

Around the time I started Christmas shopping, local Public Relations company Brazen PR hit me up with this release. It me. 

A THIRD OF BRITS BUY ‘SELFISH’ CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 

 • Nearly 1 in 5 Brits will still be gift shopping on Christmas Eve 

 • Dads are the hardest person to buy for at Christmas

 • Showcase Cinemas is giving customers £5 if they purchase a £25 gift card for a loved one this Christmas   

Is there such a thing as selfish gift giving at Christmas? It seems so, according to new national research1 published today.   

A third of the nation buys presents for other people that are actually for themselves, according to the study, commissioned by Showcase Cinemas, which investigated the UK’s gift buying habits ahead of the festive period.   

What’s more, almost a quarter of people (23%) in the UK are more tempted to purchase a gift for someone if it means they benefit from it too.   

Despite November (34%) being the most popular month to begin Christmas shopping, nearly one in five Brits (18%) will still be last minute shopping on Christmas Eve, with almost half of the nation (46%) citing vouchers and gift cards as the perfect Christmas present.   

Men are less organised when it comes to Christmas shopping, with a quarter of UK men still expected to be buying presents on Christmas Eve, with the number dropping to just 13% for women, the survey shows.   

The news comes as nationwide cinema chain Showcase Cinemas launches its Christmas gift card offer. The perfect gift for any film lover, when a £25 gift card is purchased the buyer will receive a bonus £5 voucher to use for themselves – free of charge.   

The gift card could be the solution to that one person who is impossible to buy for, as research revealed nearly a third of Brits (30%) believe their partner is the most troublesome when it comes to gift giving, followed by dad (20%) and mum (18%).   

Jon Dixon, UK Marketing Director at Showcase Cinemas, said: “Christmas is renowned for being the most wonderful time of the year, but there’s no doubt we all experience the stresses of last-minute shopping as we get nearer to the big day.   

“We’re hoping our gift cards can help take away some of those stresses and provide the perfect gift for film lovers and cinemagoers across the nation, while also allowing the buyer to bag a cheeky bonus for themselves. What could be better than giving the gift of film (and tasty cinema snacks) this Christmas?!

“Our findings also revealed that spending time with family and friends is our favourite thing about Christmas time (63%). Here at Showcase Cinemas, as well as the big new blockbuster for Christmas, Wonka, we’re screening several festive flashback films, and we can’t wait to welcome families into our cinemas to sit back, relax and enjoy quality time together watching a Christmas classic like Elf, Home Alone, The Polar Express or It’s A Wonderful Life on the big screen.”   

When it comes to the nation’s number one Christmas film, Home Alone has taken the crown, with the 90s classic starring Macauley Culkin taking 23% of the vote, beating out stiff competition from Will Ferrell’s Elf (17%) and the British favourite Love Actually (15%), with both films celebrating their 20th anniversaries this year!   

To purchase a Showcase Cinemas gift card, and earn yourself £5 for every £25 gift card purchased, head to your local cinema’s box office or visit the website.   

For further information and to purchase tickets for Showcase Cinemas festive flashbacks, please visit the website.     

UK’S TOP TEN CHRISTMAS FILMS OF ALL TIME 

1. HOME ALONE (23%) (great) 

2. ELF (17%) (overrated, steals jokes from Naked Gun) 

3. LOVE ACTUALLY (15%) (never seen) 

4. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (13%) (brilliant, very dark, misleading title until the end) 

5. THE SNOWMAN (13%) (I think I’ve only seen the ‘Walking in the Air’ bit) 

6. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (12%) (never seen) 

7. DIE HARD (12%) (exceptional plotting for an 80s action movie, started a subgenre, and is definitely a Christmas film despite what Bruce Willis thinks. The guy’s got dementia.) 

8. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (11%) (Never seen) 

9. THE GRINCH (11%) (Big Jim Carrey fan so I’m going to put it up there, despite it being a bit depressing. Excellent narration from Anthony Hopkins.) 

10. THE POLAR EXPRESS (10%) (Never seen)

Ballycastle and Burger

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Horrendous weather meant I didn’t bother with a planned Young Professionals Meetup event.

Rapture

Singer Nadia Ali fronted dance group Iio, and wrote and produced the 2001 hit Rapture. 

 

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I asked why the name Iio, and if she was into astronomy. She liked the question without answering it. Outrageous. Great tune though. (Turns out Jupiter's moon is spelled 'Io.' Fail.) 

 

 

Busy week. Shopping is complete but I still need to check over everything.

Another Awful Week in Disability News

It’s been another week of hideous governmental decisions that you may not have been aware of. Here are a handful of stories that I came across: 

Leicester woman Sandra Cutland, who has 25 different disabilities leaving her wheelchair bound and unable to work, lost her PIP after an assessment in November. She now has no money for food or bills. 

"I couldn't understand his questions and he could understand my answers,” she told The BBC. 

The DWP upheld the decision to stop her benefits. 

This issue should have been brought to the government’s Minister for Disabled People, but there’s one problem: the post hasn’t been filled.  

James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said:  “This is an appalling and retrograde move by the government. What kind of message does this give to Britain’s 16 million disabled people? That – in the middle of a cost of living crisis – we are now less important?” 

This, of course, comes at a time when the DWP are to stop sending the £300 Cost of Living payments to vulnerable households, including those on disability benefits. Does this mean that general expenses like food and petrol will be cheaper? Of course it fucking doesn’t. It’s the opposite. A decision notice by information commissioner John Edwards, instructing DWP to release the report describing ‘the impact of its errors on “vulnerable” benefit claimants... suggests that the document contains estimates of how many benefit claimants have been harmed by the department’s errors.’ So says Disability News Service. 

I’m not going to spam you with more links to these articles – these sites deliver a continuous documentation of malpractice, injustice and general contempt for the disabled and sick. You can browse them yourself if you’re interested. 

What I will say, though, is that it is increasingly difficult to look people in the eye and be amicable with them, knowing that they have chosen to vote for all this. They made their choices, and I’ve made mine. I avoid Tory voters. 

I will, however, draw your eye to one more Disability News Service article: leading disabled activist Bob Williams-Findlay ‘has issued a call in a new book for the disabled people’s movement to rediscover its appetite for fighting oppression and transforming society.’ ‘Campaigning against austerity, he writes, is “little more than a form of firefighting” when what is needed is “collective political leadership” that will propel disabled people forward in their “struggle for social and political emancipation”.’ 

Of course, how easy this will be when the government have introduced a draconian law banning noisy protest remains to be seen.

Not in the Pimblett Family's Good Books

I seem to have got my primary Facebook back on my desktop, meaning I can access my inbox, which is a relief. Facebook is still a toxic hellhole full of stalkers, socially clueless individuals, anti-vaxxers and rabid Tories, though, so I still spend as little time as possible on it. Training for the Santa Dash, like other projects I’ve done, had kept me focussed and to a degree away from social media. Now it’s passed, I’ll be starting another project soon. 

In other news, UFC’s Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett is due to be Paddy the Daddy too. His wife Laura is pregnant. I had to put my 2 pennies in, didn’t I.

Aldi Chadderton opens with Team GB Medallist

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I’ve just got home from the Aldi opening in Chadderton, stocking affordable goods for the OL9 area. In attendance: Team GB’s Sarah Jones, who got bronze in the Women’s Hockey in Tokyo in 2021. 

A great morning in Chadderton. The staff there mentioned their ‘Super 6’ deal: they work with the best suppliers to stock every store with quality fruit and veg. Then every two weeks, management pick 6 of their favourites and offer them to our customers at super low prices - all at no extra cost to their amazing suppliers.

For the Love of Sci Fi ‘23

Science fiction convention For the Love of Sci Fi returned for its 6th year, this time starring a host of Mandalorian and Stranger Things cast. I’ve never seen Mandalorian, and I couldn’t get into the pilot of Stranger Things, so a lot of the guests were lost on me. I’d bought an entrance ticket a while ago along with a photo op ticket for Tom Skerritt, Captain Dallas in Alien, but he cancelled, sadly. Monopoly Events, running the convention, refunded the photo op but not the entrance… so to Bowlers Exhibition Centre I went on Sunday morning. 

 

 

 

Yorkshire band Lina and the Lions performed a set. 

 

 

Tardis

Back to the Future Part II set

  

Gaming area

Lorraine's kitchen set, Back to the Future

Hopper's truck, Stranger Things

ECTO-1, Ghostbusters

Lina and the Lions

Rhona Mitra, Kate Hedges in Ali G Indahouse, Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider games, Sonja in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Jabba the Hut set

T-shirts purchased from Unit 13 Originals. Name the films!

Back to the Future set

Insert pun here. I'm going for Obi-Wan KenTuckey. Do better.

Gaming room with suspiciously acurate Sean of the Dead cosplayer.

Andrey Ivchenko, Grigori in Stranger Things, Kristoff in Lucifer

I ask this Grinch cosplayer for a photo. 'If you must.'

Elodie Grace Orkin, Angela in Stranger Things

Tait Fletcher, Paz Visla in The Mandalorian

Darth Vader Cosplayer in front of Death Star Wall

2 Star Wars Characters - I'm behind on this franchise tbh

Obi-Wan Kenobi cosplayer

Simon Kassianaides and Tait Fletcher from The Mandalorian

Fifth Element cosplay

Transformers

Jack Dylan Glazer, Eddie Kaspbrak in It

X Wing from Star Wars

Back to the Future Clock Tower

Brilliant Alien / Aliens cosplay with hobbit hole in b/g

X Wing

Martin Quinn, Montgomery Scott in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Nikola Djuricko, Yuri in Stranger Things

Simon Kassionades, Axe Woves in The Mandalorian, also Yusef Kabira in Quantum of Solace

A good day, despite the guests and franchises not being my thing. For the Love of Sci Fi has sadly been cancelled next year, and for the forseeable, to give the staff a break before Christmas. Fair enough. 

Monopoly’s roster is getting bigger all the time, with a recent (and possibly repeated) venture into Yorkshire so there’s plenty more to get involved with next year.

I booked today off so I can literally sit and blog for the majority of the day.

For the Love of Sci Fi convention yesterday was great fun albeit without the actors I was hoping to meet, who had already cancelled. Blog post pending. 

The new Aldi Chadderton opens Thursday at 9am, featuring Olympic hockey player Sarah Jones. 

That’s all that’s happening. Things will be quiet until Christmas!

Saddleworth Santa Dash 2023

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Back in September I made a vow to cut out junk food and focus on getting fit for the Saddleworth Santa Dash, a 5km run through the leafy villages of Oldham’s Yorkshire end. 

This took place today. I ended with a respectable 30:53, my fastest on a Santa Dash. 

In prepping for the Dash I focussed on repping out, bodyweight exercises, gym classes and running. I managed, yesterday, to dip below 80kg again. The gym computer told me my body fat is down, but so is my muscle content, which doesn’t surprise me. I’d done a bodybuilding project back in March where I put on quite a bit. Back in 2013, I managed to run at 14.1 km/ph for 10 minutes. I then went to Ibiza, came back, and I couldn’t get anywhere near it. Make of that what you will. But for a decade, I’ve been intermittently trying to hammer away at this running record via diet and outdoor road running. I’d get better, then worse again. I’d tend to run at 14km/ph for as long as I could, and add 15 seconds on every time. I’d rarely get above the 5 minute mark. More recently, though, my fitness seems to have taken a leap forward, and I managed the full 10 minutes at 14km/ph on the 25th last month. On the 28th, I had another go at 14.1km/ph and got the full 10 minutes again. 

Not sure what’s allowed this leap in fitness, tbh. This is my oldest gym record. I was so hoping I could beat it before the race, but no. And now it’s advent, and I’m unlikely to be eating as healthily. 

This is where psychology ties in: in order to get my fitness to where it is, I had to fight cravings, ignore junk food, eat well, up my vegetable intake and stay focussed. 

Big up the Saddleworth Round Table for organising. Great work.

Santa Dash, For the Love of Sci Fi

Well, here it is. The week of the Saddleworth Santa Dash. 

 

I’ve been training and dieting for this race for 2 months now. I’ve found, doing local runs of a similar 5km distance, that I’m a little fitter than I have been, but I’m stuck at a certain level, unable to beat an old PB from over a year ago. That said, I almost matched an old gym record this week, running for 10 mins at 14kmph. By the time of the race, I might have a new PB on that. I’ve not weighed myself recently but I expect I’m substantially heavier than 72kg. 

Santa Dash is the Saturday. 

Manchester movie convention For the Love of Sci Fi is back this weekend – I’m doing the Sunday. Can’t wait to meet Captain Dallas off Alien! Tom Skerritt is one of a number of science fiction guests due to attend. 

 Unfortunately, it looks like this years FTLOSF may be the last as Monopoly Events want to wind down the year a little earlier.

 

Molino, Guily, Terrace

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I went to a Meetup on Friday for the first time since before the pandemic. Caught up with a mate of mine and dropped into Northern Quarter bar On the Hush. Meetup group New in Town: Manchester Socials were having a few drinks.

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I met with them, then we shot off to Guilty and Terrace for a little bit. Decent night out. I might meet with the group again. As with many meetups, some people are cool, some are weird and socially inept. It’s life. 

But what are you gonna do, stay in?