Friday, 31 December 2010, Sierra Oscar
Happy New Year to my fans — both of you…
It’s the last day of this year. Everyone in Café Niente appears to have a cold; so does my neighbour. I posted this note in Café Niente; most of them are still in bed…
When your throat hurts badly, its T-lymphocytes attacking the virus and bacteria; they are the Sherman tanks of the immune system and you’re about to get better! 
I’m trying to make New Year resolutions so I can write a blog about it. In 2010, I wrote a story for charity, re-wrote my novel, wrote a story for BBC radio, made videos, designed a website, edited lots of assignments for students (mostly Chinese), started a WordPress blog, joined Twitter, took lots of photographs and started Chinese cooking with a wok. I’ve started taking photos for Nothing Cooking at Niente; but really I need a challenge…
Pre-cognitions
I researched some predictions from psychics and that sort of thing last night. One was that 1 in 5 people in the UK will live to their 100th birthday; another prediction was the world will end in November 2011; I’ll go with the former predication.
The only prediction I read that I agreed with was one about an earthquake; but most predictions put it in California. I think it will be the San Andreas Fault; but out at sea. It won’t affect me, I have no intention of going on any beach; I would probably come back with shell shock… It could be serious of course, we saw the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and the earthquake at sea caused a tsunami to hit Chile. What is my advice? Be a boy scout… Be prepared…
January
Shari is off to Acapulco in January, right after she gets a new hairstyle; shorter of course. The last month of the Chinese New year starts next week and will be the final phase before the good times roll from February the 3rd. The Chinese New Year is good for Shari and for me and so that is something to look forward to.
I just checked my new diary; the phases of the moon aren’t in, but there is a new moon next week and that is the beginning of the final phase of this Chinese year. I shall be starting a new novel, a comedy and writing for Nothing Cooking at Niente and of course taking photographs. I have decided to buy a barbecue; my family wants me to have a barbecue in the summer. That will cost a fortune, just in weed killer for the garden.
I expect January to be fairly quiet; my Chinese students will have a vacation for Chinese New Year. I think the rise is VAT will be a damp squid — no one cares. I think the UK will stay in hibernation mode for January and life will continue as usual; we will moan about the weather and plan a Spring of Discontent. Someone said the snow has finished but still stock up on food and board yourself in; that could be good advice. I heard something about Sarah Palin standing for president of the United States; scary… I can predict a challenge to Obama during 2011 and he won’t be president for a second term.
February
This will be a more interesting month as my birthday will be over and done with and I’ll be adjusting to being another year into being old, wise and senile. I think the Nothing Cooking website should make some progress that month and Shari’s new group on LinkedIn may start to get interesting by then.
I just looked for something in history on my browser; I must have visited 1,000 web pages yesterday. I shall go back to feed burner and learn about RSS and feeds. I also predict that in February interesting things will happen concerning my family. I saw photographs of a couple of great nephews I didn’t know about on Facebook yesterday; that could be the start of something interesting. I think my new novel should be taking shape by the end of February too.
I even think this website will be more popular by then, I saw statistics yesterday; I think you should tell all your friends about this site and I mean both of you…
March
I see protests start in March in the UK as the weather improves beginning with the Welsh and later with the Irish complaining about cuts; the students will once again take to the streets when they have a week off university and the disabled will complain about benefit cuts.
There will also be protests about Human Rights; I shall probably support those and the disability protests. Things will get even worse after the spring equinox as unemployment goes up and more government workers find they have no job. I also see problems and protests at the BBC and in the media in general just starting.
On the other side of the pond, QE 2 is considered to be a failure and with the Euro, Chinese Yuan and Pound sterling on the rise against the US dollar; economic policy is in need of a rethink. The job cuts really begin with defence spending cuts, mainly on the manufacture of armaments; but this is done stealthily and there isn’t much protest. Politicians from both parties come to agreements with big business to cut Federal spending drastically and increase taxes; expect a Federal VAT to be discussed if not introduced.
If anyone is the slightest bit interested in my predictions for 2011 and comment; I may do some more tomorrow. April is interesting; people really take to the streets in the UK.
I win the lottery in May!
I buy a new car in June!
I have a barbecue in July!
Keira Knightley drops in August!
I’ll be back…
[Editor's Note - If Mike has more predictions, they will be published as a separate post AGAIN, in addition to a comment on his Blog-within-a blog: http://sharisax.com/DrivingMissShari/2010/09/guest-blogger-mike-maynard-wit-farmville-strategies]
2011/01/01 at 12:40 pm
Saturday, 01 January 2011, Sierra Oscar
My first blog of the New Year
If you were to compare my profile page on Myyearbook to the one on Facebook, which one seems the best? I also have 930,000,000 in virtual money on MYB too. They got greedy though and introduced VIP status and asked people to pay; many people deserted and went to Facebook. I do think they have good ideas and some good games; if someone took the best of MYB and the best of Facebook and started a new social networking site with maybe a touch of a few other ideas that have been around, it could be a major success.
Http://www.myyearbook.com/mike10613
Precognitions
I will go on with some predictions for 2011; I think I got to April yesterday. If you have read previous blogs then you know the science behind this and also that I tend to get the prediction right but not always the timing. I think the most important time of the year will be the solstice in June. That is the most important time for me anyway; I intend to win the lottery! The win will come either before of after the solstice; which will of course be the longest day. I expect that will be at the end of May or maybe the beginning of July.
The world economy will dominate the news in April, with QE 2 a failure and economic re-think will take place in the US. That will mean big spending cuts especially on armaments. I don’t fully understand the system for electing the President of the United States but that will be debated and the role of the Electoral College will be questioned. I think that will start perhaps in April and will be a continuing debate throughout the year. It could be damaging to the Obama administration. The world economy will continue to be shaky and some of the long term effects will become evident. Cuts in spending in health and safety will mean accidents and disasters will dominate the news after the solstice in June. If you’re getting on a plane after that in late June, July or August in particular, check the airline’s safety record; avoid planes with a lot of colour on them. If there is a large image of red and blue; I would really avoid getting on that plane!
Banking will be in the news too after the June solstice — with a major European bank collapsing and rumours of fraud affecting not just that bank but putting banks around the world under the spotlight and there will be calls for regulation and auditors. Stock markets will be the next big news item and again there will be accusations of insider dealing and fraud and calls for regulation.
The good news in 2011 is there will be progress against terrorism and the conflict in Afghanistan will improve. The AIM (Alternative Investment Market) on the London Stock Exchange will do well, but companies that supply government should be avoided. The same applies to all stock markets; all governments will cut spending at some time in 2011 except maybe the BRIC nations. BRIC is of course; Brazil, Russia, India and China. I think all those nations will do well; but growth in Russia should be much better as they enjoy better crops following the drought of 2010. Commodity prices will tend to soar throughout the world though; mainly caused by a soaring oil price. Gold will continue to be a good investment and could go as high as $2,000 an ounce. Demand for manufactured goods will drop as people become more frugal to cope with the higher gasoline prices; this cuts exports for China. The debate about the value of the Chinese Yuan will continue as their exports drop and commodities continue to rise in price. China will try to stimulate domestic demand and there will be opportunities there for other nations to export to China. The value of the pound sterling will increase with the increase in interest rates; offsetting the effect of the Chinese Yuan, also rising in value.
One of my spookier predictions for 2011 is that a government will announce plans to build an entirely new city. It would have to be a country with a lot of open space; perhaps one of the BRIC nations or even the USA? There will be investment opportunities associated with that announcement especially in the water, energy and of course; construction industries.
Meanwhile…
I had a letter and card from one of my students in China; she thanked me for helping her and giving her encouragement when she felt disappointed and despairing. The first thing she wants to do when she comes to England is to visit me. My friend ( in Holland) just sent me two notes on Facebook with Farmville tips; her English isn’t very good. She is good at Farmville though and a lot of people play it. I need to perfect these ‘Farmville secrets’ and write a blog – then tweet the link. I think I have to wait to try this ‘Farmville secret’ the bull isn’t ready! I need more bulls too, I think!
I have a protagonist for my new comedy novel and lots of antagonists and a story of sorts. The main thing is good funny lines. I have to get it reasonably accurate and believable too. I tried to get a name for him last night. I have a thing about names; I want a name that is unique on the Internet. I also tend to give characters initials like mine; mine are MM, Captain Jack was SS before he changed his name and then JJ after he changed his name. I may call this character Jamie but I can’t decide on a surname. I searched for one on the Internet and found a blog written a few years ago by a young girl; she has no morals but is a very good writer and really smart. She sounded very unhappy.
I could write a novella; they will be more popular this year…
I had Natural Reader read this to me; it’s good for finding errors.
I’ll be back…