How to optimize your synergy with holistic bandwidth to disrupt hyperlocal customer journeys. Ping.
Posted: April 25, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: bees, business, corporate, dinosaurs, funny, honey, honeybees, Humour, language, local, nature, Summer, words, writing Leave a commentBuzz words, don’t really buzz.
They stab, in the eyes – sure.
But they don’t buzz with that warm, buzzy feeling.
I’ve no doubt they help articulate something people in corporate structures appreciate. But corporate structures also don’t have that warm, buzzy feeling.
Do bee hives have corporate structures?
Do corporations have honey?
Ping?
Would optimizing your synergy with holistic bandwidth disrupt hyperlocal customer journeys? And would that be a good thing? Sounds to me like the sort of buzz-words in action that help bees get lost on the way home to the hive.
Bastards. Leave the poor bee be.
Lost and confused, and pollen sacs full of the heavy stuff.
And it’d think: “Damn! They optimizzzzzed their synergy with holistic bandwidth to disrupt my hyperlocal journey as a customer. When will they learn!?”
All bees ever wanted to do was sniff the flowers, make honey, and otherwise just generally contribute to the overall jolly and peaceful ambience of the countryside in summer.
But we just had to go and start optimizing synergy, and that was totally uncalled for. Distasteful, even.
Buzz-words should be kept away when everything is fine. Absolutely fine. Fine – absolute.
Bees were fine, until optimization.
So were the dinosaurs, until their hyperlocal journeys were disrupted by a meteor that suddenly became holistic as hell and set the sky on fire, which was fine thanks to the global tsunamis, which were convenient since the earthquakes weren’t so troubling when everything was drowning.
Toxic, choking atmosphere though. That something the bees can also relate too.
And let’s bear in mind that whilst we’d all like dinosaurs to still be around – it is phenomenally fantastic that dinosaurs aren’t around any more.
They might have been a good source of a comically-large steak. But as far as I understand, or at least as far as I’m willing to imagine: dinosaurs proffered no honey.
We might not have bee steaks (someone should probably look into that) – we do have bee honey.
In fact, we’ve honey from nothing but bees.
Ergo; optimize it not.
There’s one positive to buzz-words. They might make more sense than everything I’ve just written.
Apart from “ping”. I saw it on Google. No idea what it means. But to give my above words any credibility – I hope it doesn’t mean “honey”.
I’ve just re-Googled and can no longer find “ping” has a buzzword. Great. Now my blog, my darling blog, is littered with “pings” and it looks far more stupid than I could have hoped.
Ping.
Sam

Genitals in a tornado – and other topics that don’t get you far as a writer
Posted: April 12, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: architecture, Art, genitals, health, history, Humour, life, News, philosophy, tornado, tornadoes, weather, Weird, writing Leave a comment‘Whirly whirly whirly‘ they’d go.
There’s something to it as a topic….the topic being genitals in a tornado.
It’s got depth, and history. It’s also metaphorical, but that’s not as important as literally having your genitals in a tornado.
Which genitals? You name them, they’re there. In fact, bring your own! BYOG!
Which tornado? I don’t know – I don’t any tornados. Obviously they’re all named, but I don’t know the depth of their character in the same way I do genitals.
Either way, I like the idea of genitals in a tornado, because that implies being naked in the elements.
And being naked in the elements, the wind and the rain, the sun and the snow, that in itself implies something too.
There’s depth to these genitals, especially hers.
I think it’s an epic representation of how tiny you are, an insignificant little human in a slightly larger universe, which is entirely indifferent, but the stars are out and pretty, and though you might be insignificant – feeling the rain and the wind and the starlight proves you’re alive.
Which is nice.
You might be able to picture the scene:
A person (perhaps yourself) looking up at an unending sky and appreciating all that living can be, whilst the turbulence of life on Earth increases – the wind rises and makes the person sway and lean into the now-raging storm threatening to rip them away, the will to be and live swells greater than the storm, and proof of living is undeniable and powerful, and all the while their genitals are going round and around like the clappers.
I’ll bet it’s good for them.
Doctors should recommend a tornado for your blood pressure, variations of hair-dos, and for your genitals. Or perhaps, just for the experience – why shouldn’t a doctor want you to have a fun time?
These. These are the topics that don’t get us far as writers. Probably because they’re so interesting, we don’t want to move.
There’s history to these genitals.
Well, really pre-history, but mostly guesswork and even statistics. There’s no way you’re the first person to have genitals out and about in a tornado.
And there’s absolutely no way in hell that you’re the first person to helicopter your penis hands-free but elements-dependent, such as a tornado provides.
The likelihood of this happening goes back further than even helicopters, further back than lassos, further back than any other things you might consider waggling round and round. A penis was doing it first – and I’ll bet there was a tornado right alongside it.
This is history that wasn’t written down at the time it happened, but I bet there’s an undiscovered cave painting somewhere in the world, with storm clouds and rain depicted – with a focus feature of a simple human figure encumbered with a penis so overly large it upsets other people’s balance, surrounded by motion lines to indicate rapid revolutions, and other members of the tribe keeping an awed-whilst-embarrassed distance.
That’s art that I wouldn’t pay for, but I would paint it.
I think they have something similar in the Vatican. Maybe on the walls that hold the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel up.
Turns out – there’s art and architecture to this.
I don’t know about breasts, since they seem to wobble most of the time anyway, but when it comes to history, I’m sure I’ve heard the term “like tits in a wind-tunnel” is one I’ve heard before. I just can’t recall when. I can recall why though – things were going extraordinarily well at the time – like tits in a wind-tunnel.
Vagina-wise (which is a theme, not a given-title for experienced gynecologists) – I’d have to imagine that whilst the tornado might make one’s ovaries a tad chilly, the hollow vagina in a tornado would emit a pleasing ‘toot‘ sort of noise – like when blowing into a half-finished bottle of beer. And you’ve finished the second half, first.
These are the topics that get one nowhere, not even preferably lost.
The important point here, is that writings on topics like these are the guarantee of successlessness. In addition to the creation of unreal words such as at the end of the last sentence, they are not what you want to read about.
But by golly, they’re enjoyable to write about.
And I write, to write.
Doing it this way is to ‘other’ yourself, which gets you attention such as I’m not getting, but the potential is still there.
These are the topics, as you’ve seen above: history, depth, metaphors, art, and architecture – who could possibly be interested in such subjects as these?! Thank heavens there was a unifying theme.
Maybe ‘genitals in the breeze’ would be a better title?
Sam

My favourite flower (which I might also beat-up)
Posted: March 20, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: fighting, flowers, funny, Gardening, horticulture, nature, sunflower, sunflowers, weather Leave a commentSunflowers.
The same flower that every single child draws when they draw a flower.
The most undeniable of flowers – they shall not be denied.
When a sunflower is put to you (and I can only imagine having a sunflower ‘put to you’ amounts to one being waggled and smushed in your face) – you’ve got no choice but to acknowledge that flower.
It’s not the most floral of flowers, nor the most flowery, but it the most ‘flower’ of flowers. The capo dei capi of flowers.
I love ’em.
I love ’em so much I abbreviate “them“.
I love the fact that a field of ’em wake up, as the sun comes out, and they worship it adoringly as it dawns and sets across the sky.
And then they droop all depressed-like, when the sun is replaced by a grey day.
They emit a lot of differing moods, from glorious, shining pride to “oh no it’s cloudy”.
There’s a lot to love about ’em.
But how would you feel if a sunflower suddenly looked at you?
You’re sitting on a bench in the park one evening, and along comes an enormous sunflower.
It sits next to you.
You decide to be cool about it. It’s just a sunflower, no prejudices from your side, it’s probably a decent flower in its own way.
And then it snaps its head sideways to look right at you.
Staring deep into your soul.
So deep into your soul, that your soul is technically your genitals.
Putting up with that, are you? Or are you going to smash its face is and shove its petals up its rootholes.
Sure, it might be a sunflower and you know it might have its own problems going on, but staring at you to the point of molestation is a step too far, and it still hasn’t broken eye contact.
So you stand, and so does the sunflower. This escalated wordlessly and the pair of you are ready for action.
You wallop it.
And nothing proceeds to happen.
And then nothing proceeds to happen again.
So you give it another go, knuckling the sunflower right between where its eyes would be.
And slowly, a trickle of sunflower oil comes from where its nose would be, and it wipes it away and brandishes its tiny little leafy arms up into little green fists.
It takes a step closer.
And it sunflowers you.
It sunflowers the shit out of you.
No, I don’t know what that means either but going by what I’m feeling, and what you’re probably feeling too, it’s likely to be fairly unpleasant if you suffer from hay fever.
Hay fever that gives you a brain bleed.
There’s only one option.
Your brolly.
Naturally, you’d considered whipping this out earlier, but that was on the basis of battering the sunflower about the stem and petals with it.
Judging by the lack of success punching it had, assault with a brolly won’t weather much better, so that’s out of the question.
What’s in the question though, is photosynthesis. A lot of it.
You unfurl your umbrella and hold it over the sunflower’s head.
A moment of confusion follows, and then surely enough it begins to droop.
Congratulations, you’ve just depressed a flower.
Vincent Van Gogh might have appreciated, as I do, the glory of a sunflower, but we simply got to make sure they know their place and don’t get too big for their pots.
Sunflowers.
I love ’em.
Fuck ’em.
Sam

Topics that ruin your working day
Posted: March 6, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: breakfast, career, Children of Men, Elvis, Film, Humour, lockdown, mood, movies, topics, Weird, work Leave a commentThe holocaust.
Anyway, I woke early one morning at the start of lockdown, frankly enjoying the idea of not having to leave the house.
My son was about one at the time (there weren’t two of him), and I’d become used to waking early for feeding time, as well as to prep for the work commute.
With no need to commute due to that there pandemic, and with my son being coddled by my wife (both still asleep upstairs), I made my way down stairs in my pajamas with the kind of swagger that celebrates not having to do anything as physical as having a ‘spring in my step’ for the rest of the day.
I laid down upon the sofa, kettle boiling, bowl and spoon cornflaking, and skimmed through the DVDs stacked title-out on the bookshelf (why else have a bookshelf, unless needing somewhere else to place your coffee and cornflakes?).
Realising that having woken at 6am meant I had by then just under three hours to somehow put on a clean shirt, move to the office-room and turn my laptop on – I had time to enjoy a movie.
I’ve a good DVD collection. They’re not really for watching, because the films are either a little too intense, or too boring for the rest of the family, or too regularly watched by me over the years because I love them so much.
But one title filled that spot between knowing it’s a cracker of a movie, and not having watched it too recently.
Children of Men.
“Coooool” I would have thought if I actually thought words – which I don’t, but the did still regard the movie, and the premise of watching it with time to spare, before work, as – coooool.
So I put the disk in the player, lowered the volume so as to not wake my Mrs and little son, and watched.
A little under two hours later, I turned off the television, made my way back upstairs, needing to wash my face and put on a clean shirt….and opted to get back into bed.
I reemerged with ten minutes to dress, and turn on my laptop.
Which I did!
And from that point I spent the rest of the day solidly not giving a shit, or anything else helpful or unpleasant to give, to my colleagues, their projects, their workloads or their latest news since coming back from annual leave and having some smashing photos to share from their time in Gibraltar.
The film’s plot, about there being no more children, until there suddenly was one more and it was born into a post-semi-apocalyptic war zone before being sent adrift with its mother towards what might or might not be a friendly boat, had really bummed me out.
How could I reinvigorate myself following so harrowing a tale of constant violence and death at breakfast?
Cornflakes should not be accompanied by shot midwives. CORNFLAKES SHOULD NOT BE ACCOMPANIED BY SHOT MIDWIVES
This ruined the working day for me and frankly the pandemic all went downhill from there (no disrespect intended).
The topics of that film has ruined my working day, but there are others.
And happily, they’re jolly.
Like South Park.
South Park is one of those entities that I forget about and am then delighted to be reminded about because it’s simply excellent. All you’d want from comedy.
I feel like I could do comedy, and if not to the degree of South Park, then at least – slightly. Slightly comedic would be a step in the right direction.
But pondering this means that, again, I am dwelling on topics that are terrible for my deadlines, traumatic for my proofreading, and deadly for my career progression since I realize the career I’m in isn’t the one I want to fucking progress with.
And quickly from there I’m wishing I too was in a post-semi-apocalyptic war zone rather than in this particular Teams online meeting because I’d bet those shot midwives would have a better sense of humour than any of you fuckers.
Fuckers.
Fucking colleagues.
Colleagues!
Before I go, here’s some more work-day ruining topics:
Modern Slavery
Unit 731
Carol Ann Duffy
The Simpsons
7 Dirty Words You Can’t Say On TV
Surprise Military HomeComings
A nice mix there, but one that makes me cry the most is Elvis performing Unchained Melody. Try working on a spreadsheet after watching that stunner.
All the best,
Sam

Sandwich ingredients – can’t we all just get along?
Posted: January 31, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: bread, cheese, Etiquette, food, funny, Ham, Humour, Mundane fantasy, Sandwich, Sandwiches, Weird, writing Leave a commentSay you’re a slice of cheese, with all the crucial memories and opinions that a slice of cheese would have.
You want, specifics? Fine you’re brie.
Actually, no – you’re cheddar. Being cheddar is important for this.
It matters to me.
Anyway, you’re a slice of opinionated (cheddar) cheese – and someone places a slice of ham on top of you.
Opinionated ham.
Ham with a mother.
Ham with hopes (not dreams though – it’s just ham).
And that slice of ham is laying on top of you face to cheesy face – how would you feel?
Perhaps you’d nod politely at one another, like businessman bumping into each other on a crowded train, but then again, that doesn’t often happen when they’re both horizontal.
It’d be really neat if you’d both simply get along. No need to shove.
But that’s not all – next is the disappointment that comes from the comfortable slice of bread you yourself had already been placed on.
You’d been enjoying it being as soft and convenient as it was to relax upon, though weirdly, it was particularly buttery. As buttery as anything you can think of as being buttery.
Not many things are buttery. In fact, its likely that most things that are buttery, aside from bread, are not intended to be buttery.
Buttery.
Albeit buttery, it was a pleasant place to find yourself as a slice of cheese, even when a slice of ham is pressed against you.
Then, you see over the slice of ham’s………………. shoulder (?)……a second slice of bread descending its way towards you.
Now I can’t pretend to have ever heard cheese before. But if I were then, like you are now – a piece of cheese about to be imprisoned within the kind of butteriness that you’d honestly begun to trust – I think I’d have a lot to say. And even more to scream.
Meanwhile, the slice of ham is still squished up against you, face-to-face, unable to move because it’s inanimate (AKA “thoroughly well-cooked”) and is desperately asking what you’re freaking out about, but can sense the darkness looming up from behind it.
As I said, I’ve never heard cheese, and I’ve never heard the inside of a sandwich either, but I’ll bet its muffled.
Now I don’t want to be grim here. There’s no pain in the life of this cheese (can’t guarantee same for the ham) so have no fear of me describing the agony of teeth coming together through you – some cheddar cheese.
But, the idea of being chewed cheese basically just occurred to me and I wanted to share consideration for the sensation with you.
My favourite part was the suggestion of the cheese and ham nodding politely at each other. Its nice to get along.
There might be a metaphor in there somewhere, sandwich ingredients getting along and so on.
But I’ll leave that to you to be interested in, I’m just curious about being a piece of cheese.
Sam

Can’t I just donate a foot and have fewer worries?
Posted: January 16, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: comedy, Culture, feet, foot, gods, Humour, life, philosophy, sacrifice, tax, woe Leave a commentI wish sacrifice was real.
Not that form of sacrifice we see every day, in which people sacrifice (meaning ‘dedicate’) their time and efforts to something for others; time and efforts that might otherwise have been enjoyably spent on more selfish endeavours.
People do that every day, and that’s wonderful. Good for them.
I mean the kind of sacrifice that currently doesn’t work. The other…..other….kind of sacrifice.
Don’t worry, I don’t want to sacrifice my children or pets or anything like that.
Just one of my feet.
To the gods.
If I could lop off my left foot (I need my right foot for work) and throw it into the fire of heavenly donations (like an ethereal footbank) in exchange for just a little less woe – I’d do that.
Let me put it like this: you can retain your left foot…..or…..your mortage is paid off by the gods. Which would you choose?
I’d be hopping to the bank with a right-footed glee not seen since I hopped for genuine joy as a child.
Then I could spend my money on things I really want to buy. Like a shoe.
And I mean no offence to those out there without left feet, but this is my view and whilst I’m sorry right now – I’ll happily apologise further when my mortage is paid off by the Gods and I can consider sacrificing some of my remaining toes in exchange for free wifi.
My children get ill, you see.
And if you’ve children too, then so do yours.
Consider this – plus war, climate change and taxes, and you’ll realise – your not as attached to your left foot as you once thought. And you’ll feel this all the more following the ‘procedure‘.
All in exchange for a little sacrifice. Just a little less woe, would be nice
Fewer feet, less woe, a fair compromise.
And what will the gods do with my foot?
None of my business, but there’s no doubting that it’ll all come down to procreating with it and birthing angelic hordes of demi-god feet that can march or tap-dance at will.
Not that it’s any of my business.
Sam

Bread. Where did the inspiration come from?
Posted: January 8, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: baking, bread, breads, fashion, French, history, Humour, ignorance curiosity, myths, recipe, recipes, yeast Leave a commentBecause I don’t have it.
The inspiration for bread is beyond me. Especially the ‘yeast‘ bit.
I have no idea what yeast is to be honest with you. And should I ever find myself holding a lump of it in my hand and was told to get some of the local crops to make bread, I’d seriously have to consider leaning on magic to get the job done.
And that’s with magic being real, which it isn’t, but then again I suspect yeast might not be either.
Take some wheat, squash it in a dry manner – don’t let it get wet in the squashing process.
Find some yeast, if you believe in such things, and just add it. I’m not sure how, maybe throw it at the dry squashed wheat. How thick a crust you get depends on how hard you throw it.
And where to find said yeast?
I’d imagine a cave, or the underside of a mighty boulder, or behind a waterfall at the mermaid lagoon – what does it matter? It doesn’t exist anyway.
When hunting the mythical ‘yeast beast’, search the forgotten realms of some dark bakery, where it continues to both give decent, hard-working folk infections, whilst simultaneously remaining imaginary.
Back to whatever ‘baking’ is:
It’s possible you then contribute an egg to the proceedings, but that might result in a cake and cakes are simply ridiculous – look at them. They have cherries on top.
Heat, the hot stuff. Put it in the mixture. On and around too.
With that done, it’s just a matter of time.
Time to wonder what the hell you were playing at, throwing yeast at things and hoping there’d be a positive outcome because you made it hotter.
What the hell were the first people who actually made bread trying to do? From whence did their inspiration come?
From whence?!
There’s only one possible explanation for bread.
And I do believe it’s the creativity of idiocy, curious to see what happens when you do something to something and see if something happens.
In this case, it was bread. But what was the first baker trying to achieve? Food?
Because and no point in the bread making process does it look like food.
It looks like matter with no future, regardless of if it gets hot or not.
What could they see that I can’t?
Did they have any idea it would become the basis of poetic metaphors for religious and socio-political economic movements, or the far more serious daily status is holds for the French?
Probably. Most of my actions are based on how important the outcomes will be for the French. Such as this blog, which I’d presume they’d refer to as “hors-de-propos” – the opposite of bread.
Sam

The News. Interesting, irrelevant or 80 years old.
Posted: January 1, 2024 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty., Today's paper. | Tags: aliens, Beavers, climate change, Culture, Dangerous, fashion, Gardening, Humour, Magpies, media, News, Newspaper, Pubs, UFOs, Vegetables, World War 2, writing, WW2 Leave a commentI am sitting here, trying to remember what articles I read now. Thankfully it was the Daily Star, so there were lots of pictures.
Pictures are good memory joggers, especially as they make words standout in the first place, and the Daily Star nails this, mainly through images of massive interest and zero relevance. Like this one:

Its a beaver. Doesn’t really need the words actually, though I do like the “Hey“.
“Hey” indeed.
The Daily Star might be what we’d hand to the extraterrestrials to give them an idea of what our focus really is, or we’d roll it up to bop them on the head (nearest equivalent) to shoo them out of our atmosphere.
Either way, we’d still say “Hey”.
If they ever come at all, but in the meanwhile….we’ve clouds.

We’re just not dangerous enough yet. Or cool enough either. I’m doing my bit, but you should all really be a bit more dangerous.
Perhaps like the warrior in the garden, rather than the gardener in a war. But I’m frankly more interested in a dangerous gardner.
With big, purple and suggestive-as-hell vegetables. Mainly purple.

It’s nice to have a goal which accommodates climate change, since the UK is going to have no aims to avoid it.
And, purple vegetables. Very ‘in-vogue’. Very ‘end-times’.
It’s getting hotter. Leave the heating off, especially if you’re in the pub.

I like a cold pub. It’s a chance to wear your coat indoors, as though you’re at ski-resort in South London (great place to drink and ski but not actually the latter).
Or you can wear loads and loads of fashionable outfits, like the music video for ‘Only You’ performed by The Flying Pickets.
THAT’S fashion. THAT’S a chilly pub.
It’s scenic. Looks good. You can’t take it away from chilly pubs, from The Flying Pickets, and from magpies.

Take a magpie. Take two, they’re free.
Now flatten it.
And you’ve got yourself the flag I’ve always thought would suit me, and my inevitable nation-state, very well indeed thank you.
Of course the black, of course the white. But those two; with that blue……if not the heights, then certainly the depths of fashion.
The last thing I noted in this paper was an advert. For a book of a tale from a witness to warcrimes they endured as a child in WW2.

I’ve tried to write about this theme but I’ve struggled to summarise in my irreverent style.
WW2 is still the news. Because we still can’t quite believed it happened.
Probably a book worth reading. Like a newspaper worth enjoying the pictures of.
Sam
Healthcare defence. How to blow your nose.
Posted: December 28, 2023 Filed under: Brief...therefore witty. | Tags: health, medicine, nose, poetry, throat Leave a commentI’ve had a head cold.
It’s been very Christmassy.
A solution was to blow my nose, which I now know was a mistake without proper training.
Simply, I blew my nose too hard, to the point that the room began spinning after an immense pop.
I was dizzy, and after enjoy that for a minute or sonwith a few twirls about thr kitchen, i decided to google what might be seriously wrong with me.
Apparently, I never learned to blow my nose properly. And probably, nor did you.
I visited a health are website which explained: “if you blow your nose with too much force, the air that moves through the tube puts intense pressure on the little bones of your inner ear.”
Immediately upon hearing this, I felt like a right bastard.
Oh those poor little ear bones. There’s only three of them and they’re tiny. And I imagine they’re sisters too, being a trio, yet also a mix of toddlers and grannies; the traditionally infirm.
Too much pressure? I can relate, oh my dear, dear little ear bones.
The sympathy I felt was immense. Not for me, but for my ear bone trio that never did nothing to nobody.
Without a doubt, this same sympathy should be utilised for the benefit of our own health, individually and nationally.
Consider this. You drink too much. You think to yourself “this isn’t doing me any favours really, but oh well”. So you drink. Too much.
Now picture the same scenario, but with your liver sobbing quietly because the nasty alcohol was picking on it and pickling it.
I need to stimulate the same for my ventricles. Don’t we all?
We (well, even if you all don’t, I will) should adopt a more aggressive, protective, perhaps even parental attitude to our health.
Psychopathic, would be most appropriate.
“Anyone here got a problem with my darling little gall bladder, step my way and I’ll nut you…..with my defenceless little forehead….”
It might be a flawed approach, but then apparently so is the traditional method of blowing one’s nose.
One nostril at a time everyone, same for blowing your nose as it is for all things.
One nostril. Less dizzy. And defend your gall bladder with your lives.
Sam
PS: this is written in memory for those dearly beloved little ear bones. They just couldn’t take the pressure of the season.

