May 31, 2026 · 5:46 am

Are you ever finished with a book?

Daily writing prompt
What’s the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day?
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We seem to have a great capacity to put people off reading. There are two instances that come to mind, firstly when I said to my mum about one of the Bronte sisters books that it was worth a read and she really enjoyed it and also to my brother when I said that the Glasgow Herald was a good read, and he said that he really enjoyed the process of reading it, having never read a “serious newspaper ” before. Subsequently neither continued with something that they had really enjoyed , because perhaps they were bombarded by so many other pieces of writing.

My point being that there is so much printed material out there and just to pick up a book is a real achievement. Good or Bad books we are never really “finished” with them. We get something from every piece of written material we look at , sometimes it is just our critical thinking that comes into play or on others we are totally blown away by the tome.( and that is a good feeling.)

I suppose writing lists and analysing the affect that a book has had on you is of value, if you like lists and talking about books.

I however, know that all the books I read affect me and have value ( some more than others). I always worry that I’ve missed something, perhaps skimmed something and always find a second read unearths new things. My view is I’m never really finished with a book, even the bad ones.

Stack of popular novels on wooden table by window with cup of tea and glasses
A tall stack of well-known novels sits by a bright window with a cup of tea and glasses nearby

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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May 30, 2026 · 4:42 am

#HeadlineTherapy A Chalet by Antoni Gaudi hidden in The Pyrenees for over a century has just been discovered.

Thanks to Ciro Marco Musella and elledecor.com for the Headline

After nearly a hundred years after the death of the famous Catalan Architect, a new work has been officially attributed to Gaudi.

A Chalet , tucked into the woods of the Catllaràs massif in the Catalan Pyrenees near La Pobla de Lillet called “Xalet del Catllaràs” which for many years has been thought to be Gaudi’s work has now been officially recognised as such.

The proof comes from archival documents and on examination of its form and construction details.The building itself was built to house technicians and engineers working in local industries nearby.

The Chalet was most likely commissioned by Guadi’s most prolific patron, Eusebi Güell ,an industrialist. Park Güell, one of Barcelona’s most visited parks is named after him.

Xalet del Catllaràs is however, one of Guadi’s smaller projects and rustically made to fit in with it’s environment in the remote Pyrenees, however with an unusual layout that wraps rooms around an exterior staircase.

It’s wonderful now that it’s been recognised as a work by Guadi and hopefully it’s architecture will be preserved for future generations.

Colorful mosaic benches and terraces at Park Güell with Sagrada Família and Barcelona cityscape beyond
Visitors explore colorful mosaic benches and terraces at Park Güell with Sagrada Família in the background.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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May 30, 2026 · 3:21 am

I knew it was profound advice

Daily writing prompt
What’s the most profound piece of advice you’ve been given? Did you take it?
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I knew it was profound advice,

And to listen to it I should not think twice,

But in truth there was so much of it,

That I’d start to follow and then forget a bit,

It came from many sources and all with claims,

Some were honest and some had spurious aims,

Be good, don’t talk too much, or sing out loud,

For heavens sake don’t be part of that crowd!

But I realised very early on,

Particularly when mum and dad had gone,

When push came to shove and decisions had to me made,

It was up to me to make the grade,

And from that knowledge I thought best,

That in truth Frank said it better than all the rest,

To progress and learn each and every day ,

That the best option was to do it “My Way”.

Man in tuxedo singing into vintage microphone on stage with jazz band
Frank

Namaste and Thank You for Reading. 🙏

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May 29, 2026 · 3:54 am

#HeadlineTherapy Unauthorised car pars near Bristol Airport makes villages ‘unliveable’ says residents

The Law currently says that a car park can be set up temporarily in a field for 28days with development rights. Although local Council’s can insist they move , they will only move to another field after the 28 days and the enforcement action to remove them by the Council will have to begin again.

Meanwhile country roads, access points and anti-social behaviour affects the lives of residents who live close to these pop-up car parks. The problem will get worse as Bristol Airport wants to expand it’s number of flights.

What surprises me about this article is that the Government is not backing Council’s by introducing a Law that does not allow this “development right”, it would seem the legislation would stop unregulated rogue car park operators setting up where they like. Makes sense to introduce this Law, so the poor Council’s don’t have to keep enacting enforcement action every month.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Crowded grassy parking area beside a two-lane road with many cars in traffic
A crowded countryside parking field next to a busy road with slow-moving traffic

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May 29, 2026 · 3:27 am

Splash the Cash

Daily writing prompt
If you had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, what would you do?
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So Economics has gone to pot,

And I’m the one whose got the lot,

As an amateur student of philosophy,

A study in human behaviour it would have to be,

How would they behave?

If they no longer needed to scrimp and save?

I’d have to start with corrupt politicians,

To see their faces would be one of my missions,

” Have what you want I don’t care,

But of the consequences you must beware”,

That proviso they would fail to notice,

The mess they make would need more than a poultice,

On strange and wonderful things they would spend,

Their efforts coming to a sticky end,

No improvements or benefits except to themselves,

And Public Library’s with empty shelves,

You see no matter how much you gave them,

Really nothing was ever going to save them.

So quickly I would move on and find a new study,

Oh yes an AI Guru would become my best buddy,

For they argue a lot about money and tort,

So I could help them with an extra nought,

It would give me access to what they want to achieve,

Although their explanations would make me heave,

“People are capital that we just don’t need

Kind of like the garden that you have to weed”,

Yes I’d be floored and would observe with glee,

That the general public questioned their sanity,

At this the AI Guru’s suffered a significant perturb

And spent all my money on a publicity blurb,

Little good it did , for it was too  good to be true,

Computers can’t do what a human can do.

Time was moving on and it was getting near the end,

So I felt I had to do good and offer a stipend,

It was my opportunity to crush the bot,

To give to those who protect others both human and not,

Boost their coffers and increase the good that they spread,

Give them the bucks they need to move ahead,

To make things better for all of us,

To work steadily and without a fuss,

Planet and People to nurture and protect,

With every method and heartfelt project,

In truth this was where to invest an income stream,

To make their plans much more than a dream.

Businesspeople exchanging money at a conference vs. homeless man with dog indoors
AI Generated Image

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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May 28, 2026 · 5:01 am

No Show

What’s a show that had the perfect series finale?

When you truly love a show you can’t imagine the characters not existing anymore.You want them to keep going even if the writers have run out of ideas or frankly got bored and feel they have nowhere to go.

So for me there is no “perfect” series finale.

And if I’m disliking the show,then the sooner it ends the better,and there’s always the “off” button.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.

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May 27, 2026 · 7:01 am

Jeez, I’d be in a panic……

Daily writing prompt
If you could have dinner with any philosopher, who would it be?
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It was quite by accident that I invited Kant,

I thought he would simply say I can’t,

Instead he replied by return,

That he now had a method to leave his urn,

At first I thought what a clever man,

I’d always been a devoted fan,

And then I considered what could he eat?

Perhaps I should make him just a sweet?

Ice cream and strawberries would be fine,

And perhaps a bottle of that Aldi wine,

It had three gold stars in ” How to dine”

And of course he’d appreciate a German vine,

We’d talk and talk until the early hours,

Until we heard the neighbours having their showers,

At that Kant would begin to moan ,

And say that he really should go home,

He’d break the spell and send me back to reality,

Creating an aesthetic distance quite deliberately,

I’ve got to admit we would have had such fun,

Though it would be sad when he talked about him not having

a son,

I’d change the subject to something cheery instead,

I’d probably find out what it’s like being dead,

And then of course we’d laugh and smile,

Thinking about his theories all the while,

Death apparently has no fashion,

So his ideas ,thank heavens are still his passion,

I needn’t have worried about immaculate conception,

I mean that would be divine intervention,

And Kant would say religion is pants,

And on single motherhood he had many rants,

So his ideas to him are still his thing,

And he cackled loudly ” death freed him

from the need to earn a living.”

With those parting words he left me cold,

I don’t know why but it made me feel old.

Immanuel Kant seated at desk, writing with quill, books and globe in background
Immanuel Kant depicted seated, writing with a quill at a desk surrounded by books.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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May 26, 2026 · 11:27 am

Podcast Episode: Philosophy In Strange Forms

Pip: thenotsomightyom is out here asking the big questions — meaning of life, the nature of reality — and somehow landing on coffee.

Mara: That's actually a fair summary. The posts move through existential territory: ancient mysteries, ego, vanity, and what we choose to hold onto. Let's start with those big questions and where they lead.

Existential Questions

Pip: The frame here is deceptively simple — what is the meaning of life, what makes you question reality — but both poems treat those questions as something you live sideways into, not solve head-on.

Mara: "Ectoplasm" sets the terms early. After running through philosophy, justification, and fear, it lands here: "It all comes down to ectoplasm."

Pip: Which is either the most honest answer to the meaning of life or the most honest admission that there isn't one. Either way, the dog knows more than we do, apparently.

Mara: The poem does lean on that — the hound understands "ancient lore" while we're busy accumulating thoughts with lots of noughts. There's something genuinely deflating about that image, in a useful way.

Pip: It punctures the whole enterprise of grand explanation without being nihilistic about it.

Mara: "The coffee….." takes a similar angle but from the inside out. The question there is about a moment that made you question reality, and the poem works through ego, shame, crime, wealth, and vanity — not as a catalogue of disasters, but as things the speaker has genuinely moved past.

Pip: The lines "I've managed to crack that ego thing / After all it's just drug dealers bling" do a lot of work in very little space.

Mara: And then the poem pivots hard. After all that clearing away — the relationships, the possessions, the entitled faces on television — the moment of reality-questioning turns out to be a grapefruit rind and a cup of bland coffee at breakfast.

Pip: With a footnote admitting the coffee was actually fine.

Mara: Which is the point, really. The poem earns that landing because it did the philosophical work first. The mundane detail doesn't undercut the reflection — it's the destination of it. Presence over performance, breakfast over vanity.

Pip: Both poems use humor as a delivery mechanism for something that would be insufferable if it were sincere all the way through.

Mara: That balance — earnest question, wry answer — is consistent across both pieces. The small absurdity at the end is what makes the larger observation stick.

Mara: What stays with me is that both poems arrive somewhere grounded after starting somewhere vast.

Pip: Big questions, small landings. There's probably a philosophy in that. Next time, we'll see what other territory comes up.

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May 26, 2026 · 8:38 am

The Heat and Child Labour ( making use of energy)

White T-shirt with black and white portrait of Iqbal Masih and text about child rights activism
A white T-shirt featuring a portrait of Iqbal Masih advocating for child rights

I am sitting here in this British Heatwave with the freedom and economic security to look after myself, rest, drink fluids, sit in front of a fan and dare I say it have an ice cream.

And then with the heat just getting too much, the top of my arms burning and I’m not even sitting out in the sun. I am very angry.

For somewhere in the World there is a child who is under ten, perhaps even five or six, working in these temperatures. Probably bonded labour, sold by parents who could not afford to feed or clothe them. No comfort, no relief from the burning sun, only given whatever relief they need to keep them working. No freedom to move, no freedom to take a drink when they want , no shelter, just the pain of repetitive work that there small hands are good at doing. I have no doubt that these conditions still exist , because Iqbal was killed by the Child Labour Lobby in Pakistan. Child Labour was seen as necessary, part of the economy.

My thoughts lament this situation .

In this intolerable heat in the UK with holiday makers out and about, queuing on motorways, people arguing about their routes. Families stopping at overcrowded service areas where suddenly the workers staffing them are overloaded by the demands put on them. Full waste bins, rubbish being dumped unceremoniously on grass areas. Queues for toilets and shortages of all sorts of things. Tempers fray and children cry

” This is the worst holiday ever……”

Perhaps they are right. Perhaps we should be glad that we can live in a society that they have the freedom to choose what they like and dislike and what they will put up with, and they have the right to complain.

With all this talk of AI making everything better, can we link it somehow to allocating resources efficiently so little children do not need to be bonded and that the heat of the sun is converted to better energy both to protect us from it’s harmful rays and create better ways of manufacturing the goods we need.

Then when we reach that Nirvana state where everyone is looked we can consider the demise of the planet that we live on , for indeed that day will surely come.

The billionaires of today want an escape route, but I think that is very naive. They should be looking at the World as it is now and ensuring the health and wealth of all. For that is our future.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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May 26, 2026 · 2:20 am

Bat those thoughts away

How do you handle fear and self-doubt?

What a strange thought to doubt yourself?

To face the fear of losing your wealth,

After all what makes the World go around,

Thoughts and Ideas they must abound,

Each has a role it must play,

It’s best to let everyone have their say,

Appearances of course must be right ,

No thought is worth a terrible fight ,

Then again no one is so clever,

To shout and gain say never,never..

Sometimes you have to stand your ground

At least that’s what I’ve always found.

Choose your moment carefully ,

Mine’s usually at  quarter to three,

The playground is empty I’m all alone

Thank Heaven’s the children have all gone home.

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