The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

The news has been dominated recently by news of powerful people in Hollywood, Westminster and beyond. It turns out various men in positions of power have been sexually assaulting people. I don’t think it’s a surprise that this happens but it’s horrible to hear of the specific people involved and the horrific things they’ve done. Before I go any further I want to make it clear my views on this in case my writing doesn’t make it clear. I have no sympathy for the perpetrators of this type of crime and every sympathy for the victims. I can’t begin to imagine the psychological effect this has on victims and how hard it must be to come out and tell the world a terrible moment of their life. Some still accuse victims of bringing it on themselves but the only person to blame is the abuser. The whole situation is really unsettling. Is this what men are really like? I’ve never been the most ‘laddish’ of guys and I’m glad of that if this is what it means. This isn’t about me and I’m not goin...

I’m sorry the old Dan can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, because he’s dead. I couldn’t resist bastardising Taylor Swift to open this new post. Things are looking up. It’s difficult to explain quite why but I’m feeling more positive about who I am. I feel a little more confident in myself which is great. I thought I’d get back into blogging. For so long I have been embarrassed about pretty much every aspect of my life but I feel it’s about time I was true to myself. Which is why I’ve shared this post on Facebook where people I know can actually see it.  I’ve been blogging on and off since I was a teenager and it’s just become a thing I do. I started this blog in 2014 when I failed my teaching practice and didn’t know where my life was heading. The concept was, and remains, that I am trying to become a better version of myself, a Dan 2.0 if you will. It’s also a place where I can just write about stuff which is something I like to do. An update then. Well, at the en...

A couple of weeks ago I read  this article  about climate change. It’s quite a long read and I will discuss some key points here, but essentially it discusses the things that WILL happen over the next few years if we don’t manage to slow down the increases in global temperatures. We’ll get to that in a minute. Now I love children- I did a degree in primary education and have worked in a school for three years now. It was always natural that I would one day want children of my own. Of course I did. As I’ve grown up and become more attuned to what the world is really like I have changed my mind. The world is a mess. Politically we have Donald Trump as president of the US, Brexit is actually happening and right wing parties across the world are growing in popularity. It’s hard enough for my generation to get a reasonably well paid job and actually afford to buy a house. I dread to think how hard it will be in another generation’s time. But politics is temporary. Throughout...

The Jewish festival of Passover has taken place this week. Jews commemorate their liberation from slavery in Egypt, the end to the struggles of Moses in Exodus. In the run-up to Passover, Politicians around the world have been saying some disgusting things in regards to Jews and the worst period of their persecuted history, the Holocaust. Here in the UK Ken Livingstone claimed Hitler supported Zionism (he didn’t) and the Labour party failed to sanction him effectively. White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested Syrian leader Assad is worse than Hitler as he didn’t gas his own people (obviously wrong). Then in France far right lunatic Marine Le Pen claimed France didn’t help send Jews to death camps (they did and the French government openly admits that). Meanwhile the presence of Holocaust deniers online is growing. You know the history but it’s important I state it in black and white. Around 11 million people were brutally murdered in the Holocaust. 6 million of these ...

I recently read a book set in the 1980s which talked a lot about what was number one in the chart at the time*. I got thinking about number ones and I had an idea. Here is a poem I’ve written which tells the story of my 25 years of life. Each stanza discusses a year of my life and somewhere in the first line, in bold, is the song that was number one on my birthday that year. There’s even a couple of double A-sides and the occasional lyric. I hope it works! This looks good, I think I’ll  stay , The warmth, the love everyday. I’m hungry; thirsty; need to sleep But giving memories they’ll always keep. Oh Carolina , jump and prance, It’s time for me to walk and dance. Suddenly I have found, There’s more to life than making sound. Doop  apparently means ‘poo’, Now I have to use the loo! I’m a big boy now- that’s what they say, And getting bigger everyday. I wanted a brother- I should  think twice , What if he turns out not to be nice? The bulk of the attention I ha...

Since I last wrote here I reached 25 years old. I know that in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really seem that old- I’ve still got the majority of my life to live. But it’s the biggest number I’ve ever had as my age. I think 25 should be the age we define adulthood in the modern world. By 25 the majority of people have completed their education, have some idea where their career is heading some beginnings of a family of their own. Most people have found their place in the world by 25 and I havn’t. I’m not going to go on about that too much today, I’ve discussed the ins and outs of my so called life on this blog before. I felt though like some sort of imposter as I turned 25. How could I claim to be this age when I feel so away from it? I’m ostensibly not much different to how I was when I was 15, only with less acne and more nasal hairs (that’s a thing now apparently). As well as the actual number, the whole idea of a birthday makes me uncomfortable. It’s the one day of t...

Last week was the half term holiday and the weather was kind so I was able to spend some time out and about. Today I thought I’d share some of my adventures and experiences. I do a lot of walking these days. I love being out in the countryside and if I haven’t done a reasonable amount of activity during the day I find it really hard to sleep. In April 2016 I bought a Fitbit and have hit my daily step target of 10,000 steps every single day since then, regardless of the weather and even on Christmas Day. On one such walk last week I leapt over a stile. It’s a route I take pretty much every Saturday. The stile is broken so it does require quite an effort to get over it- a jump is the easiest way to do it really. As I landed I found myself unwittingly in the middle of some sort of vigil for the poor guy who was found dead in that spot a few days before. So awkward. I did my best to portray my sympathy in a smile and then had to walk on. It  was a truly cringeworthy moment. Spen...

I noticed the other day that I had all my old blog posts saved on my computer. I started reading them and it brought back the memories of how much I liked blogging. I’ve been posting bits irregularly for the last six months or so but I’ve decided I want to get back into it properly. The plan is to post something here every weekend, though it may be more or less regular than that depending on what I’ve got to share with you. I seem to become ever more self-enclosed. I hardly ever tell anyone anything about my life, be that what I’ve been feeling or simply what I’ve been doing. On a rare occasion I might feel strangely open and end up telling someone something I’ve kept entirely to myself, even if it’s a mundane thing. The other person never realises the secret they have ended up hearing. It’s probably not a healthy way of living but it’s how I get by. I’ve become so fearful of being judged that I don’t let people have anything to judge me by. I just keep quiet and out of the wa...

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...