The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

One of my favourite TV shows, Sherlock, has just finished airing it’s fantastic fourth series. I thought it was superb and lots of people enjoyed it too. But as ever the internet was full of people moaning about it. It’s odd how negative our world has become, especially on social media. Why do people feel the need to focus on the negatives and spend so much of their online life complaining about things? I find it a strange and miserable way of living.  It’s all social media’s fault of course. Before Twitter, Facebook and co I think people were more positive about things. If you didn’t like something you might mention it at the time but only the few people you happened to be with would hear it. Social media really has a lot to answer for- immediate thoughts and unchecked news are ruining the world politically. I imagine a different state of affairs. What if everyone only talked about the stuff they liked? It would be better for them mentally and indeed everyone else. The good...

Fidel Castro has died! Those were the exact words of a tweet from Donald Trump. What has amazed me about the aftermath of the Cuban leader’s death is the way so many people have used it to try and make a political statement. First, context. Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary and dictator. He ruled the country from 1959-2008 when his brother Raul Castro took over. In the fifties Cuba’s government was corrupt but a revolution led to Castro turning the country into the only communist state in the West. This led to huge problems during the Cold War and nearly led to nuclear destruction in the Cuban Missile Crisis. He ruthlessly ruled the country but it’s now in a stronger place than it ever was. That’s the thing about Castro. He was a dictator and did some really horrible things. But as dictator’s go he wasn’t  that  bad and took down a crime ridden government and I think most people would agree that Cuba has got a lot out of having him as leader. Basically, it’s compli...

It’s been a tough week online for the comics industry. The brilliant comics writer Chelsea Cain was tweeting about her disappointment at the end of her  Mockingbird  series, canceled by Marvel. She shared an alternate cover for the final issue: Then the abuse came. This is Chelsea’s take on it: Overnight, I had lost thousands of followers. (I’d gone to bed with about 8500.) I had gained a thousand new followers. I had been tagged thousands of times. Comments were coming in, fast and furious, every second. I’d never seen anything like it. I saw a few of them – a lot of support, a lot of people yelling at one another – a lot of people mad at me for being too quick on the block button or too critical of comic book readers or being too feminist. A lot of them just seemed mad at women in general. I deactivated my account. I got up. I walked my dogs. You might not believe that in 2016 this sort of thing happens. It does. Here’re a completely real screenshot of just one pe...

You may have seen the news of gorilla Kumbuka escaping from his enclosure at London Zoo. The male Western Silverback got out into a secure keeper’s area and was quickly tranquilised. The public was never in danger and the situation seemed to have dealt with very well by the London Zoo staff. The events have led to an organisation called the Born Free Foundation releasing a statement saying “it could have ended very differently” and was a “startling reminder” of the risks of keeping wild animals in captivity. The organisation wants to see zoos phased out, something which I disagree with. In terms of their opinion of the events of the London Zoo incident, it seems frankly wrong. It was extremely unlikely that it would ever have ended any differently thanks to the zoo’s safety procedures. The animal never escaped into a public area, the public were evacuated quickly and the gorilla was tranquilized and moved back to his enclosure remarkably quickly. It seems clear to be that London...

You may have seen, intentionally or not, the latest news about Kim Kardashian. She was in Paris and was robbed at gunpoint. I’m not full of sympathy towards her. OK, that’s not entirely true. I have sympathy in terms of the fact it must have been a traumatizing experience and one I wouldn’t wish on anyone, even someone I don’t like.  I really don’t like Kim Kardashian. I struggle to think of one redeeming feature for her. Everything about her is image and that’s not what life is about. She has become a millionaire on the basis she is good looking. I don’t even view her as good looking because it’s impossible to tell what she would actually look like without the various fakery which makes her look like she does. She doesn’t appear to have any personality whatsoever. She chose to marry perhaps the most arrogant man in the world. I could go on.  It puzzles me that she has become something of an idol to so many girls and young women. They want to be Kim Kardashian and that’...

The Summer holidays are over and after some training days last week work begins properly again on Monday. It’s always a bit of a shock to the system but after two years at least I feel comfortable in my job.  I discussed friendship earlier in the summer. I had seemed to reach a point where I simply didn’t see any friends but I endeavoured to do something about that. This led to wandering through the New Forest, spending days in London and Winchester and going to a music concert on the beach. It was fantastic to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for ages.  Actually I should discuss that beach music concert. We went to see the headline act, the Kaiser Chiefs. There were other acts on first, up and coming artists Imani Williams and Callum Scott and the older rockers Travis. It was all quite enjoyable but nothing particularly special. The Kaiser Chiefs were about to come on when it was suddenly announced that they had been cancelled because the tide was coming in. I know, th...

The summer holidays have begun and I should be happy. I’m doing a few days work here and there but I have somewhere in the region of 40 days off. Don’t get me wrong, I needed time off and don’t particularly want to be at work. But I quickly wondered how on Earth I was going to fill those days. Work is a fantastic distraction from the reality of my life. During the work week most of my thoughts are about things that are going on at work. But when suddenly I have six weeks off that distraction is gone. The familiar thoughts of worthlessness and failure have soared to the surface once more. The trouble is I still haven’t really got over failing my final teaching placement two years ago. It took me a long time just to get over the mental trauma of it all. I quickly, perhaps too quickly, accepted the fact that I just don’t have the skills to become a teacher. But I haven’t ever got over the shame. To everyone who knew me before that placement I was a young man with a good career ...