Stuff I've read recently 4

Wow! It's been quite a bit of time since my last post, again thanks to slow reading distraction and the epic volume of my "main" book. I've noticed while reading that I tend to split books into three categories "Main" books - usually a classic or some dense work, often non science fiction, which makes it more of a challenge to read. Then there are Christian books which I read for my own benefit more than reading pleasure though I've managed to get into them a bit more recently. However I do sadly tend to view these as more of an obligation than an interest. Lastly there are "incidentals" - books which just get picked up along the way, often graphic novels or Star Wars books which are quick and easy to read alongside a wheightier volume. So so far I've only read one "main book" but I've picked up a few incidentals along the way. I've also got several nearly finished books which can carry on to the next post if I can get my next "main" read before I forget.

Anyway - here goes. I'll start with the Bible and Christian books.

The Bible, God et al

OK I actually lost my Bible so I can't remember where exactly I was up to. In the meantime I've jumped to the new testament and read through John which was encouraging. To read the story of Jesus again is very compelling to read and John's careful eyewitness account and carefully chosen events and miracles to reveal are good reading and thought provoking.

Finding God in Lord of the Rings - Kurt Bruner

A nice cheap little book which I decided to read and it has helped me ease my way into reading Christian material a bit more frequently. Thankfully the authors don't pretend to have some deep insight or knowledge of allegory in the books but rather acknowledged that Tolkien's Christian life influenced his writing and point to useful lessons reflected in the epic tale.

Battles Christians Face - Vaughan Roberts

A very helpful book about the struggles and temptations we can face while living the Christian life. It goes through a number of topics thoughtfully and sensitively providing encouragement while getting the reader to acknowledge the gravity of their own sin. But for each measure of guilt there is the greater reminder of God's grace provided by Jesus and testified to in his word.

OK, onto incidentals now I think...

Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Revelation - Karen Traviss

While not the best of the series this book was pretty good still and a good setup for the finale. The more in depth look at the Mandalorians was good as well as several other familiar faces turning up out of the shadows to join the war. Some nice fleet and Jedi battles in this one as Jacen's nature as Sith Lord is revealed and the rest of the galaxy has to decide once and for all which side they're on.

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Widely regarded as one of the greatest works of the medium of graphic novels this is a great read, dark and gritty as it is compelling. The story of failed superheroes is very poignant and tragic as they seek to find their place in a world that seems darker without them. The murder of one the "Minutemen" a group that went before and inspired the present group sets off a chain of events that challenges every character to face the depths of themselves and face up to what it might mean to truly be a hero.

Gear School - Adam Gallardo

A nice short graphic novel aimed at the younger market. I think it is a fantastic piece of work, not the least blighted by it's younger characters or audience. I think more science fiction for children should be written - it's not an easy task to condense advanced scientific theory to something a younger reader can cope with but this book has triumphed at it. The art, done by a studio in Spain, is incredible the design of buildings and "gears" are unique and excellently drawn.

I've a feeling there was more, and there probably was, but oh well onto the main course I guess.

Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy

A dense volume that explains my absence from posting on of these. I was intrigues by the video game series of the same name and thought I'd buy it just out of interest. It sat there waiting to be read for some time and didn't dissapoint when I finally picked it up. The book features one of Clancy's primary leads John Clark who is now getting on and has been put in charge of an international anti-terrorist organization. Keeping the group under wraps is a challenge but when a spate of terrorist incidents breaks out, and a former KGB agent and a coporation with a dark agenda are thrown into the mix this bunch of strangers may have to get on and quite literally save the world!

Well I'm being called away, hope you enjoyed my brief and cursory insight into the literature I've absorbed not too long ago.

Weekly Quote W/E 31/05/08

Some hollow philosophy for ya this week

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." - C.G.Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

The Future (未来)

I took another trip to Liverpool today thanks to having half term off. It was nice to once again be in the town and still feeling strangely at home in it.

Anyway, on the train there there were two girls of around GCSE age sitting next to me bemoaning the fact that they had to learn basic Chinese in school, which I found very intriguing. Learning Chinese was unthinkable in my day, my school couldn't (and probably still can't) offer Chinese even if you wanted to do it. In fact since we had compulsory Welsh doing another language such as French say was entirely optional unlike a lot of schools which have a choice of French or Spanish say. I'm glad to see that Welsh has become a bit of a bigger agenda in schools now, though I'm sad to see the additional pressure it puts on teachers who just don't seem to be getting the resources to do it.

Back to the topic, I found Chinese interesting as it reflects the fact that China is growing as an economic and political power and I guess people are preparing for the time when it may one day rival America. If that is the case my generation will be stumped if Chinese becomes more of a trade language. These factors were lost on the benefactors as they couldn't see any particular reason for them to go on holiday to China! I also find it amusing as I am a fan of the TV series Firefly in which the characters frequently switch to Chinese while talking, also in anticipation of China becoming a potential superpower.

Liverpool was nice and this time I got to see more of the shopping area and not just the bar scene as last time. We checked out the new shopping centre in Paradise street and it is, I have to say, awesome! It is a two level area stretching out with walkways crossing across the first floor and connecting to other buildings. The great thing about it was that the shops are all in close proximity like a shopping centre ought to be, but there's also sky above your head and a breeze blowing through so there's none of that nauseating feeling you get after being in a shopping centre too long. The design of the place is fantastic - one of the bridges has a twisting design, but is entirely smooth inside and the two layer concourse is a delight to see. Even the parking is awesome, with a gray floor and black rectangles denoting parking space instead of the boring old white lines. There's plenty more being built with multiple architectural designs around and it looks set to rival even the Trafford Centre. The in-city location is also very convenient. It unfortunately lacks many guy shops, but will hopefully get more accesible stores in sometime soon. In the meantime it's well worth going just to see it.

Word of the post: Transient –adjective

1.	not lasting, enduring, or permanent; transitory.

Half Term

I am, unlike most working stiffs, enjoying the glorious week's rest that is half term. Those of you in education will be enjoying this week, though most of you I know have it tainted by the proximity of exams, but a week to cram in those final revision sessions is just as valued as a week of rest if not quite as enjoyable. I myself have no such pressures and I guess I could feel a bit guilty about having a week without work or obligation - but heck life's too short for that!

Have I done much? No. I do tend to feel some need to do something great or cool with my holidays, but then again if I was busy doing stuff it wouldn't be much of a holiday would it?! I've met up with a few friends and plan to make another trip to Liverpool tomorrow. I've also managed to get a fair bit of writing done, and completed one of several first chapters of ideas that I've had. I hope I can keep it up and get onto the daunting chapter 2! I've had a nice day today reading and doing character and plot outlines for yet another idea I've head, this one is for a comic book something I've not attempted for a while.

Be aware that I've never had anything published and that most of what I write gets abandoned as I realise it can't live up to the delusions of grandeur I get when I start each piece. But I hope I've got better motivation than glory and can be satisfied with all the great things I've already got by God's good grace. anyway I do seem to have caught the bug again after a while of not doing anything and have continued writing. I tend to have an outlet for writing when I'm not doing anything and that's my Sci-Fi blog, which is slightly in danger of overtaking this one in post quantity and partyl the reason for this meandering unthoughtthrough post.

And also the reason for me ending it!

Word of the post: Snarl –verb (used without object)

1.	to growl threateningly or viciously, esp. with a raised upper lip to bare the teeth, as a dog.

Weekly Quote W/E 24/05/08

Another quiet week

"At Hallowe'en the old ghosts come about us, and they speak to some; to others they are dumb." - Hallowe'en, Eleanor Farjean

Weekly Quote W/E 17/05/08

"I am a brother to dragons,
and a companion to owls.
My skin is black upon me,
and my bones are burned with heat." - Job 30 v 29-30

Just when I couldn't think of anything to blog about!

Well I was just contemplating a Tim-style post about how I haven't done much posting and what I'd like to write when I stumbled across something quite magnificent which I will share with you now. It's an inovative animation done like none I've seen before - it's very abstract so don't try too hard to understand it just marvel at the artistry and skill which went to this.

And make sure you wait for the man with a briefcase - just when you think it couldn't be any more innovative it just gets better!



MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoy - thanks to Penny Arcade for the link by the way - the artist's name is Blu.

Weekly Quote W/E 10/05/08

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster,
and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Frederich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Here come the bugs!!

Once again the sun has started shining just before we were ready for it, leaving us unsure of what to wear each day as the weather could still turn to rain at any second. We are also determined to get out and enjoy the sun as much as we can in case it's an early 5 day summer. Glorious as it is, and as much as I do genuinely love having sunny days I am, of course, here to complain...I mean, this is a blog after all!

The sunshine has brought insects out of hiding and they are all swarming around like there's no tomorrow. I've already gotten into a habit of sweeping my hand in front of me as I walk around and I've delt with several wasp incursions already. So the sun may be lovely and bright, the grass seems that much more green, but the blue sky looks set to be blocked out by a deadly swarm ready to descend and bite anyone unfortunate enough to be outside at the time.

Be warned!

Word of the post: Dirigible –adjective

2.	designed for or capable of being directed, controlled, or steered.

Capital of Culture

Recently I got a chance to revisit my university town of Liverpool. While I didn't stay there and couldn't uite call it a "second home" I still feel quite atached to the place and it was great to have an opportunity to be back, which I don't often get. And so I visited my old Uni building, trotted about familiar streets and sat back in the sun.

The city has been named European Capital of Culture 2008. I must admit to being a bit skeptical to their getting it at first, one would imagine only renaisance type places would get it, but having been there some time I do feel now that it is merited. While not particularly "classic" the city does, nonetheless, posess a unique culture of it's own, perhaps underappreciated by those of us in close proximity to it. This culture is exported worldwide through Beatle-mania and so is recognizable and viable to the award givers.

The city is also mutlicultural, I walked through the outskirts of China Town each day and it was fascinating to see a sub culture reflected in the architecture and faces on the streets - when I wasn't running to a lecture that is!! There is also a thriving arts and literature culture which I was part of when there to a degree. (Hey that's a joke!!)

But what did the award mean to me. Well it meant that for the three years I was there the city was one large building site and they're only just finishing now that I've left!!! One week all the traffic would be redirected, the next the pavement would be gone, replaced by a widened road. A lot of remodelling went on, and while the place does look more or less the same it has at least smartened up it's attire a little.

One little stop gap measure they've used is to plasture dilapidated buildings with Liverpool 08 posters. Not in the fly poster type way, but large colourful murals which turn eyesores into adverts for a great city. One of the best upgrades I'd seen, though I couldn't experience it fully unfortunately was to open up St Lukes cathedral which was heavily damaged by bombs. I was startled to hear operatic voices coming from withing - the only previous inhabitants being trees!!

So while it hasn't quite turned into Rome (though if you miss out the Colluseum, Rome's pretty overrated if you ask me!) it is still a worthy city and a place I'd love to revisit any time.

Word of the post: Intangible –adjective

1.	not tangible; incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch, as incorporeal or immaterial things; impalpable.

Weekly Quote W/E 03/05/08

"Tyger, Tyger
burning bright,
In the forests
of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

- William Blake

Weekly Quote W/E 26/04/08

Think I'll stope doing intros to these...

"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...
The solution to this problem lies in the heart of manking. If only I had known I should have become a watchmaker." - Albert Einstein.

Moonwalking Bird - need I say more?!!

With great thanks to QI and YouTube for this one



Dontcha jus' love animals?!

Word of the post: Moreish - doesn't show up in't dictionary (and with good reason I think!) generally used on adverts, most likely a type of food what makes you want to eat more of it like.

X-box 360: Suitable for all

Well I recently invested in an X-box 360 because well, in gaming terms, I needed to - see more of my reasoning in THIS POST. It has worked out pretty well so far, I got a very good price on amazon which included a pad and a 20G hard drive. There were also sopme good deals with it, I got the Wireless entertainment pack, with another pad and two games for £25 down from about £100 or so and I also was able to purchase Halo 3 for £10 when getting the console so it worked out rather well for me on the whole. The other games were Forza 2 and Viva Pinata of you're interested.

I went out and grabbed some more games for it, chiefly the new Lost game, which has proved to be a good buy, especially as I got it a few pound cheaper than RRP from Tesco. I also bought the latest Splinter Cell as I had not been able to get it on PC and also "The Urbz" 'cause it looked fun and was exceedingly cheap. It was something of a joy being able to get these games without having to check for Hard Drive space or processor power and I managed to get the lot for a little over £40...about the price of one Playstation 3 game!

It's been great having it, but one thing really tickled me about it. On the box of the console which itself did not include any games, was printed one of these babies...












I had to laugh that they decided to state that a piece of hardware and the setup screen are safe viewing for people of all ages - what will they think of next?!

Word of the post: Unseemly - adjective

1.	not seemly; not in keeping with established standards of taste or proper form; unbecoming or indecorous in appearance, speech, conduct, etc

Weekly Quote W/E 19/04/08

Ok her's another yadda yadda yadda, more from Watchmen for ya

"Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?" - Genesis chapter 18 verse 25

See ya

Workin' 1 to 4, what a way to make a livin'!

Hi readers

I mention not having much to write about 'cause I'm settled in a routine, but it struck me that i hadn't really mentioned what that routine is so I'll very briefly set that out for you now.

I've finished University and now, after a brief, halfhearted jobsearch I am now working at my old part time job I started while in Uni. I work at a local special school, working with kids who have various learning difficulties. I don't feel particularly comfortable giving details on what I do in my work since it involves kids, and a lot of the data protection stuff is still fresh in my mind so I won't go into specifics, but rather talk about how it impacts my day to day routine.

Due to budget restraints and other factors I can only work in the afternoons, which I find a bit odd, but I'm used to now. I used to work mornings which, aside from getting out of bed, were ok 'cause I had the rest of the day free after. Afternoons is a bit more limiting and segments my day a little more than I'd like. Recently I've found that I can just about get around Chester so it's not too bad and I can look at the shops and get a few things done if I need to.

One of the oddest things is not having assignments or homework. I've just about shaken it off, but for a long while I kept going in feeling that there was something I should have done at home to prepare, then realising with some relief that there wasn't. This is good, but I guess it makes my free time a little more free than it should be.

This could be a problem as I intend to do teacher training next year, and by all accounts it's pretty intense and while I am used to schools and education I'm not too used to a heavy workload and it will no doubt take some getting used to once I get started, but hopefully it will be good all the same.

Well that's more or less it and I should probably leave the ol' keyboard alone once again so that's basically what I'm up to. Pretty much everyone who reads this will already know more or less all of what I said, but I felt like saying it all the same.

Tra

Word of the post: Provisional - adjective

1.	providing or serving for the time being only; existing only until permanently or properly replaced

Weekly Quote W/E 12/04/08

Woopsy! Little bit late with this one, the old X-box arrived yesterday and has been a bit of a distraction heh! Hmm, I had a really good quote and all, but I've forgotten it so I think I'll carry on with the Watchmen quotes for now.

"And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians." - Elvis Costello

Till the next time something happens...

Birthday Presence

Almost a fortnight ago now was my second 21st birthday and a good day it was too. Much in the way of fun was had and I really enjoyed myself with friends and family. Often I take on a load of expectations and worry about making it the best day ever, this year I just chilled with it and had the more fun for it I think.

We started with just a gathering round at mine for friends who couldn't make it to other events a few days before my birthday. We spent most of the evening trying to hook up my mate's Xbox to our TV with little success, getting sound, but no picture. This was a little depressing as I was intending to get an Xbox myself. Just as we gave up and tried something else, my mate slapped himself on the head and realised he'd left it switched to HD viewing, a simple flick of a switch the problem was solved and we had a great time playing Wrestling games. The Xbox is now ordered.

For my birthday itself I again decided to just have a relaxed day, since one or two people were busy on the day itself. I organised a trip to Ellesmere Port and let people sort out their own arrangements. Not as many came as I'd thought, but we had a good day. First I went round Blue Planet with my best mate Edd, caught up with two more friends for a walk round Stanney Woods (or a swim as far as the dog was concerned) then they went back to do their respective coursework and then we met up with another friend who we chatted to whilst bowling and then we went around the shops to select a birthday present (Watchmen by Alan Moore) before heading home to a delicious cake and other nibbles. I finished off the evening by killing off Agent Smith on my computer (see Blogga the Hutt)

I got some nice swag too. Mostly money and chocolate, but I also got a cool T-Shirt with a Space Invaders design from my sister and a SatNav from my parents who was been great fun. I chose Sean, the Irish accent as my guide and so Sean he has been dubbed. And he came in useful too.

The next day we trotted off to Pwllheli to go to an outdoor pursuits centre. It was a heck of a long drive. The automatic route seemed to go here there and everywhere, but Mum new a quicker route and Sean's ability to auto adjust (instead of saying "do a U turn" as many models do) guided us to our destination...well actually it got us to a farm down the road, but it was fairly close!! We followed this up with a Quad biking trek, most of which I spent ramming Edd with my Quad...unintentionally of course! We slotted in a bit of bowling then made the return journey, after which I slept, knackered from probably the longest drive I've done.

My shoes are almost recovered from immersion in mud so all in all I'd have to call it a good time and a fun birthday with great friends.

Word of the post: Ordnance - noun

1.	cannon or artillery.

2.	military weapons with their equipment, ammunition, etc.

New Coke Advert - GTA style

OK, so they have long been an official sign of Christmas's arrival, but for the rest of the year Coke's ad's are generally viewed with a cynical eye - especially the new "Coke side of life" campaign. But this new advert, modelling the video game Grand Theft Auto and twisting it subtly has to be a mark of great thinking and one of the best ads I've seen in a while, very funny, very creative - and here it is courtesy of YouTube

Yes I am concerned about how much I'm talking about Coke!!!



Oh and on the videogame front, here's an add from China modelled on World of Warcraft.



Fun huh?!!

Word of the post: Peripheral - adj.

1. Related to, located in, or constituting an outer boundary or periphery.

Weekly Quote W/E 05/04/08

Well it's been a week for birthdays this week, with mine commencing, my friend's midweek and my Granddad's to close. I may recount some of the adventures had on these occasions but for now I'll finish with a quote that has nothing to do with anything but is a piece of brilliance so great that the creators put it on a t-shirt which you can buy (Penny Arcade - sidebar)

"If you say anything else - word one - I will kill myself. And when my tainted spirit reaches it's destination, I will topple the master of that dark place. From my black throne, I will lash together a machine of bone and blood, and fueled by my hatred for you this fear engine will bore a hole between this world and that one.

When it begins you will hear the sound of children screaming - as though from a great distance. A smoking orb of nothing will grow above your bed, and from it will emerge a thousand starving crows. As I slip through the widening maw in my new form you will catch only a glimpse of my radiance before you are incinerated. Then, as tears of bubbling pitch stream down my face, my dark work will begin.

I will open one of my six mouths, and sing the song that ends the Earth."


Now that's what I call a threat!!!!

Product Testing - Diet Coke Plus (Vitamins)

Hehe! Just had a bit of fun Googling this image. I'd searched for a picture of Diet Coke Plus, when I did a post weeks back on Diet Coke Plus antioxidants (scrool down you'll find it somewhere) but when I googled the same thing to find the image again I actually found a link to my blog in google images and no sign of the original image and I guess the same thing'll happen when I put this post up, kinda funny huh? Well I think it is anyway...

OK so the two new Diet Coke variants have lasted a coupla weeks, at least they were still in a fridge in ASDA a little while ago. They haven't wormed their way into vending machines or the like, but new drinks rarely do and with Diet Coke Plus being a smaller sized and slightly different shape bottle it's unlikely to happen soon.

After the green tea debacle that is the Antioxidant variation I expected some equally intriguing yet unpleasant taste. I was dissapointed by the result yet at the same time glad to have something i could swallow down without grimmacing. The added flavour was orange, fairly predictable with it being vitamins and having orange designs on the bottle, but heck it could have been carrot or something right?!

Orange is nice, yet boring. I've been mixing Coke and Fanta since I was tall enough to reach self service Coke machines so Coke with a hint of Orange is nothing new to my taste buds. nonetheless it is a fauirly pleasant taste so if you want a healthier option with you're Coke, which is something I think I need to do, though I'll stick to Maxes and Zeroes thanks, then this might be the one for you.

Word of the post: Ignoble - adjective

1.	of low character, aims, etc.; mean; base

Weekly Quote - Birthday Edition

Well yes, my Birthday has passed and now I am 21 for the second time around - for those who might want to know I've had a good few days with my friends and though they may have cost me a good pair of shoes the things we did were well worth doing. A good old tradition was kept up in that me and my friends went around the shops until we found something suitable to get as a present! The one we chose in the end was "Watchmen" the influencial graphic novel by Alan Moore, creator of other well known books such as V for Vendetta and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Each Chapter of this fantastic book and with a quote, the first of which I furbish you with now - enjoy.

"At midnight, all the agents and all the superhuman crew, go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do." - Bob Dylan

Weekly Quote - Easter Special

Again apologies for lack of content, but suprisingly I'm actually doing better than Tim for updating, which is a bit worrying since he's my blogging benchmark in terms of frequency and variety of content.

Anyway since it's easter time i though I'd whack up something to do with easter and what better than an easter song eh? While not specifically about easter modern hymn "In Christ Alone" deals with the death and resurrection of Christ and also it's power and meaning in our lives - the third verse sprang to mind as I thought of appropriate quotes.

"There in the ground his body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as he stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ."

Wholly appropriate for the time of year I should say. And wholly appropriate for any time since Christ still "stands in victory" to this day.

Till next time

Weekly Quote Double - W/E 15/03/08

Yes I've missed a week or two I'm afraid, been busy and all that, but I'll get in quick with a weekly quote double to compensate for lack of blogage. These two quotes get in by merit of being the first and last in the dictionary of quotations.

"O what their joy and glory must be,
Those endless sabbaths the blessed ones see!" - Peter Abelard 1854 (translated from latin)

"He [the Evil Spirit] defied the whole creation...
So things of the material world appeared in duality, turning, opposites, flights, up and down, and mixture..." - Greater Bundahishn ch 4 (The Zoroastrian Scriptures)

Well...uh...there ya go!

Post 101: The Tea and Coffee rant

This post has been a long time coming, but I can't think of a more appropriate time to put it up than on the posts numbered with the number representing all hates - 101!

I have never like Tea or Coffee and I'm fairly certain I never will, even if my tastebuds did adapt to their most peculiar flavours I think by now social and other factors have accuulated such a hatred for both products that I can never seriously consider drinking one of them again.


Why don't I like them: firstly 'cause they just taste weird. Coffee products are just wrong, coffee ice cream is ignored, coffee biscuits only tolerated and coffee chocolates are always the last to be taken out of the box - so why on earth would I want a coffee flavoured drink for crying out loud. Now Tim and other caffeine addicts may be able to tolerate the aforementioned products, but I suspect that this is because they can't taste anything but coffee by now anyway!!! Tea is more tolerable, but a flavour I can't quite figure out and I don't have any particular inclination to do so. So then my initial reason for disliking tea and coffee is essentially that I don't like the taste, but is this cause for hatred - no, as always people are always behind the larger issues.

But let's stay on the product for a minute because, coloured by other factors, I have developed an extreme dislike for the stupidity of the tea/coffee making process. What idiot when he was thirsty decided that instead of taking water and drinking it to assuage his thirst he would instead boil it and chuck a load of leaves in and then when it got too hot he got some milk (another perfectly good drink by the way) and chucked that in there. What a complete nutcase he must have been, but yet somehow his invention caught on. And so around the world people actually bother to take time to make a drink when they could have downed a juivce and gone on to more fruitful activity - there's nothing worse than waiting around for people to make their cups of brown filth when you've got something better to do. The heat factor is also very irritating, why you would want to make something hot I struggle to understand. The repeated swallowing of boiled water seems to give tea/coffee drinkers a tolerance for heated food which I just don't have so people always heat their food to ridiculous temperatures that the human body, unless subjected to this bizzarre willing torture, is unable and unwilling to endure. So this means I always take longer to eat than other people and I'm a slow eater at the best of times.


But even this is not enough to generate the extreme dispassion I feel for these products, as I say, the problem is always people. Drinking hot filth is such a status symbol in Britain that you are frowned upon if you don't partake with the masses in their daily caffeine ritual. These products aren't drunk because of pleasure or thirst of their holder, they are drunk because it is seen as a social necessity to do so and those who can't tolerate it or succumb to attempted indoctrination (maybe it's genetic?) become social exiles, politely outcast by the rest of civilization. This come with the stupid preconception that tea/coffee is a "grown up drink" - since the high heat of the drinks is dangerous to give small children this is a sensible label, but people have taken it to also mean that if you don't drink tea or coffee then you are not truly a grown up.


As with other, more tragic, forms of social abuse if you are told something enough you start to believe it. You start to feel that you don't match up to the rest, you start to apologise for forcing to people to get you juice or when they bring you coffee out of assumption (yeah sorry for forcing you to make a drink that takes two seconds to make you...) and generally feel a little bit less of a person for doing so. Well I've found an outlet for these feeling - and that is pure anger and distain - no longer will I apologise for who I am or for my tastes and beliefs.

I, the Figleaf or your imagination, detest both tea and coffee and I'm proud of that - March 12, 2008

Adieu

Word of the post: Quadruple - adjective

1.	fourfold; consisting of four parts

Weekly Quote/ 100th post bonanza

Hello readers, this things which you may be reading is in fact my 100th post on this blog and as well as the slightly overdue weekly quote I'll have a quick look back over the previous 99 posts, what brought me through them to today and what is going to happen in future posts. Well first let's get the quote out of the way eh?

"It's easy for a man to smile when life rolls along like a song. But a man is a man who can really smile when everything's going wrong." - Adolf Hitler 1945 (courtesy of Barry Cryer)

So, blogging eh? I was informed by friends that this was the thing to do, and I cautiously dipped my toe into the wonderful world of writing for millions to see, and two or three to actually read. I remained cautious over letting the potential millions seeing what I though and felt and initially kept my postings to a small "Space" provided as part of my MSN account where only verified contacts could read it. This provided me with the security I needed and so I was free to write, to complain, to tell stories and generally jibber jabber online - I was soon hooked.

Eventually I decided to spread out to the wider world and accessed blogspot.com and got myself an account. I still stuck to limited content, more or less just copying content from my still current MSN blog to the somewhat awkwardly titled "RE-blog: the home of C 'n P" so named for the fact that was essentially a remake of an existing blog I liked to Copy 'n Paste content onto it: I'd done a joke about R 'n B remixes being more like C 'n P and it went down well at the time, unlike most of my jokes so it seemed worthy of the title space.

So the somewhat awkward balance between private and open blogs remained until my favour started to slip towards the blogspot one, mostly due to the fact that people actually read it! And soon this blog became the current one and the MSN one became redundant. I still C n' P'd content onto it up until recently, but it's purpose has been served and it's death was, I think, officially realised when this blog took on it's moniker "The Place that is."

I'm still fairly reserved, and I'm cautious about posting photos of myself or others on here - though Facebook has given me an outlet for such activities, again secure that most of the people who view my pictures I should know personally. On my blog I've declined to share personal information and released no image other than a shillouette, why - just a general feeling that one should be better safe than sorry while surfing and I guess it also lets me blog and say things without feeling it has to be about me or that I have to let people know what I'm up to. While it is a thin layer the anonymity lets me at least feel that I can say what I want and write whatever gibberish I feel like writing without it being my fully stated personal opinion. Like I say it is more of an illusory placebo than an actual reality the effect is still there.

Of course anonymity would mostly be helpful if I had a mass of readers, which I don't. I had a decent amount of readers to begin with, but I think people lost interest due to my posts being long winded and only sparsely updated. By the time I took the advice of having shorter, more frequent posts, regular commenting had more or less died out. I guess this brings up another issue, one I call blogger vanity - to assess one's worth in the amount of comments one gets on one's blog. Now I'm aware that I do have semi-regular readers now, which is encouraging, but without some kind of measure of visitors to the site unless they comment it's hard to know if they look or care. I could get some kind of hit counter, but i think that would fuel my vanity more so I'm afraid to consider it.

This is starting to turn into a lengthy uncommentable post so I'll wrap it up methinks. As for the future I merely plan to continue as I am, and maybe gain a reader along the way, but not feel too bad if I don't. I've had various ideas along the way, but always get disapointed when they don't turn into the massively popular, underground star createing projects I imagine them to be so I think realistic goals and just enjoying the fact that I can write and occasionally have people read what I write is pleasure enough and I will do my best to treasure that.

You've been a maervelous audience - goodnight!

Word of the post: Crapulent - adjective

sick from gross excess in drinking or eating.

Shotton Solutions

Hello dear reader, and how are you?

This post concerns the town of Shotton, which is nearby to me and which I drive through regularly for work, church and to visit friends. Unfortunately driving through Shotton can be a hard event to go through because of the horrendous traffic there which will frequently jam up even during the middle of the day when no one should be driving really! This is partly due to a network of side streets which wind around and take time off your journey, and since evryone knows them it doesn't often speed things up to take them.

Aerial photograph of Shotton














This, unfortunately, drives almost all traffic onto the main street. In terms of covering distance it is the most efficient way to get round the town. Unfortunately it is a very efficient way to get to lots of other places too as it leads to and from several other towns in more or less a straight line. This means that half the people in Shotton are actually trying to get out of it, often with little success. The non local traffic don't know the side routes and the locals can't be bothered taking them so it can make for a very frustrating journey indeed.

Photo of main street - ironically taken on a quiet day
















Various solutions to this have been proposed, including stopping buses from stopping in the main street, but this merely drove more people onto the roads and those who chose to walk home just caused road rage because they were actually travelling faster than the cars. I would like to propose an alternative solution to the problem and that is to create a large overpass which would literally let cars skip over Shotton and carry on to other destinations and at the same time letting local traffic continue as normal, albeit with a few buildings missing and not being able to see the sun as much.

Artist's Impression














Such an overpass would in my opinion facilitate a much better way of life for people driving through Shotton, those outbound could pass over the town at a comfortable 70mph which lical traffic could carry on beneath with little or no interruption to their journey. I do feel that something like this will be necessary since Shotton is developed and spread out so there's nowhere to put a diversion road without going miles out of the way which is why people still go through Shotton even though they expect heavy traffic, something needs to be done - who will step up?

Disclaimer: Of course most of the facts in this post are made up and for the purposes of a joke, if you don't get that you're a bit thick really and you probably won't even read this but I'm putting it here anyway. This post is purely about the traffic situation in Shotton and means no slight to the town or the townspeople, well only a slight slight at least, the very slightest of slights I should say. All in all this has been an interesting experiment and when it comes down to it I think we will all agree fundamentally that the average price of a can of Coca-Cola should be no more than 50p.


However, when experiencing the actual reality of Shotton traffic myself and one or two other have often mentioned an alternative solution...
















Thank you for your time

Word of the post: Congealed - adjective

solidified by cooling

Weekly Quote W/E 24/02/08

A bit late but what's to do.

"The tragedy of English cooking is that 'plain' cooking cannot be entrusted to 'plain' cooks." - Countess Morphy, English Recipes (1935)

Till sometime soon

Review a CD?...yeah go on 'en!

Alan mention on his blog (sidebar) that bloggers should think about reviewing a CD and so I will. I'm aware after starting that this has virtually nothing to do with what Alan was mentioning but I'll press on nonetheless and see what my musically ignorant mind can produce to describe the last album I bought, which would be this one...

Gorillaz - D-Sides
Double Album
Parlophone records










D-sides is the latest offering from the world's greatest virtual band (note to self, aren't they the only virtual band...probably not by now...must check) and is a must buy for any fan of the band. While 2-D, Murdoch, Russel and Noodle have taken a break from the recording studio...though since they also live in it it's a bit hard to see how! Anyhow to satisfy their fans ever present need for musical greatness they have released D-Sides a double album of B-side tracks and remixes which should keep them going for a bit. As well as these the album also includes rare and unreleased tracks such as "Rockit" which features on their webpage.

This is not the first time this tactic has been used as G-sides, originally aimed at the Japanese market but proving popular enough for world wide release, was created after their first album campaign. Other recent releases have been "Rise of the Ogre" an autobiographical account of the band's creation, "Slowboat to Hades" a DVD with videos and other material from their second studio album Demon Days. Their website is also a wealth of material in it's own right and now features a dilapidated and partially destroyed setting in keeping with the video for El Manana their last single. So with Gorillaz you don't just get you music you get a story and a whole world not quite like our own.

Anyway, so the music yeh? While not a studio album the CD still contains a number of highly catchy and proffesionally done tracks. I would say that the album on the whole feels very much in the same spirit as their first album. Demon Days is dark in tone and very much the studio album whereas "Gorillaz" was the happy go lucky experimental and unusual record you'd expect from a bunch of animated delinquents. D-Sides starts with "68 State" a beautiful instrumental track mixing guitars and synths eloquently and drew me in instantly. With the catchy "People" to follow, cleverly reusing elements from "DARE" to create a completely different song I was hooked. Catchy would be how I described most of the songs on there with beats to make you tap your toes and clap your hands. With the melodic "Hong Kong", the weird/rocky "Murdoc is God" and the completely unique "Rockit" adding flavour the album is certainly not a dull one.

The remixes are also very good, featuring a variety of artists reinterpreting songs from "Demon Days" in a variety of intriguing and provoking ways. DARE and double A-Side track "Kids with Guns seem to be the most popular tracks with three re-mixes each. I'm glad Kids with Guns is appreciated by industry proffesionals as much as by me, though I'm surprised Feel Good Inc didn't get more attention. However favourites for me would be the Junior Sanchez remix of "DARE" featuring powerful electric guitar riffs and the Schtung Chinese New Year remix of "Dirty Harry" which not only adds eastern flare, but the song is also sung in Chinese.

To say more would be to feign music knowledge I simply do not posess so I'll quit while I might just possibly be ahead.

Farewell

Word of the post: Exegesis - noun

critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, esp. of the Bible.

Weekly Quote W/E 16/02/08

I'm off to York soon so I'll post up this week's quote a modicum early...as soon as I think of one!

Um...

Well...

This sounds ok

"You have not had thirty years' experience...you have had one year's experience 30 times."

not sure of the context, but I bet it's blinking funny in it!

See ya soon

Weekly Quote W/E 09/02/08

OK, it;s that time again - this week I'm going to fob you off with some of the words of Chairman Mao, which I don't completely understand, but I like the idea of a paper tiger!!

"The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible but in fact it isn't...All rectionaries are paper tigers."

Yeah, nothin' terrible about atomb bombs, it's just you imagination folks!!

Till sometime soon...

Product Testing - Diet Coke Plus (Antioxidant)

While the title makes me feel like starting another of my "series" posts (see previous post for example) but that, for your sakes, will hopefully not happen, with the possible exception of the other flavour "Plus" drink.










OK so Coke have yet another line of variant drinks out on the market - Diet Coke Plus and out of the sheer morbid curiosity that drives me to do these kind of things I just had to buy one when I saw it in the shop. Actually seeing it in the shop seems to be a kind of spur, watching on TV made little impression on me, but seeing it in the fridge made me want to reach out and grab one - guess that's the power of advertising - plus I was a little thirsty.

Coke have released many variants over the years including the popular Cherry Coke, which was amazingly good, but now seems to be available only in a local chippie, Vanilla Coke which captured the flavour of ice cream soda well and had a good stint, but has also waned in popularity. A more recent venture was Coke Orange, which came in a suitably coloured bottle but for someone who's been mixing Coke and Fanta since he was a kid it didn't overly impress - I haven't seen it again since. An image search revealed a whole host of American variants including Coke Blak - is any Americans stumble across this can you please fill me in?

Obviously Diet Coke is the longest standing variant and a seperate drinks option in it's own right and is likely to outlast and outsell even Coke Zero which has made it's stamp on the market (though Pepsi Max did virtually the same thing several years before.) And naturally when marketing a healthy option, Diet Coke is the best base to jump from. Another variantr which seems to be out there still is Diet Coke without caffeine, which is a bit odd to me, I mean if you take the sugar and drugs out of Coke what is there?!! But I haven't tried it to be fair.

Anyhow instead of taking something away these drinks obviously add something to the mix. In the case of the one I grabbed off the shelf it was an antioxidant. Curious to know what an antioxidant does I grabbed it, chugged it and was soon on the floor gasping as the air in my lungs was sucked away... OK, so I don't actually know what an antioxidant does, but it didn't do me any harm and it won't rot my teeth I guess. Unfortunately my curiosity into antioxidants has been put off by the fact that they also added Green Tea to the flavour, creating an aftertaste that I can only describe as weird!! Not a fan of Diet Coke as the best of times, I have been put off their further attempt to make my drinks healthier - which I guess makes a blog post this long a bit anticlimactic, maybe I'll try the other variety to see if I come out a bit more positive!!

Ok, I'm tired now and I want to put the bottle in the bin, goodbye!

Word of the post: Nomenclature - noun

1.	a set or system of names or terms, as those used in a particular science or art, by an individual or community, etc.

Stuff I've read recently 3

Well I've picked up the pace a little bit, mostly due to the books being Science Fictioney and quicker reads than the classics and more serious books I try and labour through. A train journey down to London and back helped speed things up a bit too!! So anyway here's a list of the things I've read since...well since the last time I wrote on of these things.

Oh, and I've added "Visual Bookshelf" to my Facebook page, so any readers who are friends with me on that can check out what I'm reading at the moment and other stuff.

The Bible - God et al

Since the last post I've managed to get through Amos, Obadiah and Jonah - owing more to the shortness of these books than my reading pace. The books of Amos and Obadiah, prophesies of judgement against God's enemies and his own rebellious people contrast with Jonah who is very reluctant to go on a mission of mercy to a foreign kingdom. These books show the attributes of God, both the righteous God who must punish evil and the saviour willing to rescue mankind from their own sin.

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno - Troy Denning

One of the shortest books of the series, but still worth paying the price. The galaxy has entered full on Civil War and the Jedi and even the Solo family are forced to face up to the fact that Jacen Solo is now truly their enemy and that he must be destroyed. Once again targeted and alienated, the Jedi and those who support them are considered enemies of the state. One of the notable things about this book is that it features the Sith from the Legacy comics in it.

Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Fury

A slower paced book that I whizzed through on the train and seemed to have a less dramatic impact on me somehow. This book wraps up several threads of the storyline while still leaving plenty of room for an epic conclusion. Again the galaxy is plunged into darkness and the Jedi struggle to hold on to their principles as they follow Jacen down in the hopes of ending the war.

Bad Twin - Gary Troup

A story written by a man who tragically disappeared on Oceanic Flight 815. Yes, this is a Lost tie-in book, but unlike a lot of tie-in fiction is is extremely well written and you don't need to be up to speed with the latest mystery to read it. There are several nods to Lost, notably the Widmore family, who also feature in the series and a number of companies and individuals who were part of the "Lost Experience" online game. The book itself did feature in the series, but was unfortunately destroyed before anyone could figure out the connection.
For the non Lost fan the story is about Paul, a detective hired to track the billionaire brother of Cliff Widmore, Zander, who is renowned for being a reckless soul and who Cliff thinks might be in danger. Drawn into a case much bigger than anything he's seen before Paul has to face danger himself and figure out who really is the "Bad Twin." A really great read, if a little rushed in parts, and worth picking up.

Analog Magazine, December 2007 - various

Analog is one of the primary Science Fiction magazines in America and I was fortunate to snag a copy on import from Borders and enjoyed seeing what contemporary SF writers are up to. The stories were wide ranging and interesting from spoilt billionaires who dive into supernovas for the thrill of it, legal battles between man and machine, alien visitors from Aztec legends and mystery on a distant human colony. With one exception, an immature and boring "Jesus just wanted everyone to be happy and if we all believed that instead of the stuff he actually said then the world would be so much better." the story was childish and similar stories were shot down for that reason at Uni so I don't see why it deserved a place in that magazine - no doubt atheists think it very clever though. On the whole though, very diverting and worth buying, if I spot another issue I'll definitely grab it.

Don't Waste Your Life - John Piper

Challenging from the front cover, the book shows how Christians can often waste the precious gifts that God has given them and challenges us to live our lives, to work in our jobs, to use our money, to spend time with our friends and all other activities to the glory of God, a monumental challenge we all fail at, but striving to do so will leave us able to live life without saying "I've wasted it!" when we reach it's end. An excellent book which I'd highly reccomend to anyone who calls themselves a Christian.

Well that's it for now, I'm already starting on my next set, but they're a bit thicker than these books and don't have as many lasers in them so they may take a bit longer, we'll see, but I think I've written enough for now so adieu.

Word of the post: Be - I can't find a definition, but I mean the prefix as in "bewitched"

Weekly Quote W/E 02/02/08

Well it's now February, and we're already a month into the year that is 2008 and what better way to note this than to pick a quote at random and post it up here because I haven't got time to do anything else!

"You can't kill her! She's pregnant...with five babies...and one of them's a puppy!" - Jim Friel, legendary lecturer at John Moores U.

See ya soon

On London

Recently I had the opportunity to go down to London to visit some close friends of mine. Now I guess I could tell you about the wonderful time we had...or I could just whine about the capital!!

London is BIG, I mean stupidly big. OK so there are several American settlements that dwarf it but nonetheless it is rather massive. I was astounded to see that a train journey from Euston (universal arrival station for us up north) to where I was going to meet up was estimated at a little under an hour - no journey withing the same city confines should take that long!! OK, so it actually took ten minutes, even with changing trains due to cancellations but the point stands.

On arrival at Euston I was greeted (not personally) by several policemen strolling the station keeping watch. I guess this is necessary because of the terror attacks but it is still a strange sight. The only other time I've seen police at a train station was when Liverpool Central went into lockdown because of fire, and even then it was only two bobbies casually leaning on a wall.

The next step into weirdness was purchasing an Oyster Card, London's new travel solution. Not too far from Science Fiction the card is "topped up" and then swiped over a reader on your journey deducting money for your travel as you go along. The most bizarre thing was when the system extended to buses too, you no longer have to exchange words with the driver you just beep yourself in and get off creating a very impersonal feel, which apparently suits Londoners down to the ground.

After meeting up with my friends and perusing the National Gallery one of the first sights of London was to see a large black man unashamedly singing and dancing in front of the historic building. People were passing by absently videoing him, but apparently his rendition of "Billie Jean" really got them going. There aren't many such nutters up north but enough for it not to be a complete shock. It makes you wonder why they do it though, I mean was he just hoping that Simon Cowell was going to take in some art that day or did he have some perverse need to publicly express himself. Nonetheless I got a good few seconds video out of it and moved on like everyone else.

The last negative, fuelled by Oyster Card human independence is the dispassionate nature of people travelling in London. On the tube it is practice to avoid all contact with people on your journey..which begs the question why put all the seats facing each other! Anyway, I managed to get onto a tube train by jamming my bag into the door at the last second. Anywhere else the people on the train would be having a giggle about it and swapping stopries of close shaves for the next few stops at least, but on the tube everyone just stared at the floor. No sense of humour whatsoever just minds numbed by travel on a system designed to be as inhuman as possible.

OK, so it's not quite that bad, and we did have one nice conversation on the tube. And it was a good day out, but nonetheless the big city is a weird weird place!!

Word of the post: Vignette - noun

1.	a decorative design or small illustration used on the title page of a book or at the beginning or end of a chapter.

Weekly Quote W/E 26/01/08

Bit late...I've been busy...tell you later

"It is better to marry than to burn." - 1 Corinthians 7v9

Now there's motivation!!!

Weekly Quote W/E 19/01/08

Well there's not much to say really...another week has gone, so here's another quote. Oh I think it may be the last Facebook one...oooh!

"The way to become famous fast is to throw a brick at someone who is famous" - Walter Winchell

Till next time...

Stuff I've read recently 2

Hello. Well it's been a shamefully long time since my last one of these posts, so long I could barely remember I'd done one of these and I'm struggling to remember which books I've read since the last one, though that's not to say I've read lots, just a few...and very slowly! But anyway, it's still a good practice to remember what I've read, and if you find it interesting then all the better.

I'll start with the Bible, I've got through a fair few books of it while plodding through secular literature. Since there's a few books to get through and my summaries have generally been grossly inadequate I'll just note down the books I've read and maybe link to better written reviews later.

The Bible - God et al.

Since the last post I've read through Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea and Joel. These books, especially the early ones take place during a time when Israel/Judah had been humiliated and defeated by the nations around them, but these books emphasise God's control and authority during this dark period in Israel's history, which was ultimately his judgement on them.

Planet Simpson - Chris Turner

"On Thursday 21st January 1993, around 8.20pm I was standing on the edge of a dance floor at a campus pub called Alfie's with a glass of cheap draught beer in my hand. The dance floor before me was packed with people, all of them waiting - as was I - for the nest mind-blowing riff from the in-house entertainment."

This is one of the first non-fiction books I'd read in ages, or at least the first I'd read purely for entertainment. It tracks how the development of pop-culture has influenced the dysfunctional yellow family and how they have had more than a little impact on it in return. While at times a little overreaching in my opinion the book charts how the show is one of the most vivid and accurate reflections of consumer culture in modern times. Dense, but a very easy read I would recommend it to anyone who wants to think a little more about the impact one TV show has had on our world.

Elephants can remember - Agatha Christie

I've returned this to my Dad so I don't have the opening line, but it was a great read nonetheless. Again Christie shows her great ability to weave unique and thrilling plotlines in many different ways. This story builds on intrigue rather than tension, with the murder being long in the past and no one at real risk of death. The story follows a girl's need to find out whether her parent's death was murder or suicide. No one knows, there is little evidence to prove anything other that that they are dead and most witnesses so old they only have foggy recollections. With this scant evidence Poirot must try to piece together an ancient case, and makes good reading while doing so.

Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday - Alan Dean Foster

"Standing taller than a thirty-six-story building and weighing six million, seven hundred thousnd pounds, in the year 1969 the Saturn V moon rocket was the biggest man-made object ever sent to space."

While I wouldn't class this as one of the best books I've read, and tie-in fiction is hardly renowned for it's masterful prose, it was still a pretty decent read. The book is set around the time of the Moon Launch where a secret crew enter space and inadvertantly find their way into the middle of the conflict between the Decepticons and Autobots, not knowing who to trust and struggling to survive, lost in space and outclassed by the far superior Transformer race. Some of the details were a bit unclear and there seem to be a few discrepancies between it and the film it prepares you for, but nonetheless it was a good intro. If you're a fan of the film and want to know more then it's probably worth the flutter, otherwise I wouldn't rush out to get it.

Untold Stories - Alan Bennett

"There is a wood, a canal, the river, and above the river the railway and the road. It's the first proprer country that you get as you come north out of Leeds, and going home on the train I pass the place quite often. Only these days I look. I've been passing the place for years without looking because I didn't know it was a place, that anything had happened there to make it a place."

While prose this was again one of the few non-fiction books that I've read in recent times and though it's taken far too long I'm glad to say that I read it and enjoyed it. The book is comprised of numerous pieces of writing including prose, essays and Alan's diaries. The title piece is an autobiographical account focused on his mother's deppresion, but telling a good chunk of his life's story around it. While non-fiction it certainly has the flow of a prose piece, and it took me a good few pages to realise it was about real life, which to me made it all the more interesting. The man has had an interesting and diverse life yet he tells his story with a good deal of humility or "shyness" as he so often terms it. There is a great variation in types of writing and that keeps it fresh and readable throughout and as a last note the man manages to talk about art and actually make me interested and sympathetic to him as he manages to approach it with both a collector's eye and an appreciation of how it looks to someone who's come into the gallery to keep warm - a rare gift in my book!!

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

"'Tonight we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.' The guy who said that was a sergeant who didn't look five years older than me. So if he'd ever killed a man in combat, silently or otherwise, he'd done it as an infant."

The Forever War is more my cup of tea, being an epic and unique Science Fiction adventure. The story is told of William Mandella, recruited into a war against an unknown enemy, the Taurans, and finding he spends much longer at war than he could possibly imagine. The method of travelling they use distorts time so when they first attack the Taurans they spend a few days attacking with limmited success, then return only to find decades have past, Earth's economy crumbled and reformed. Unable to cope with such a drastically changed homeworld he returns to the army only to have his so called "veteran" status mean he gets promoted and pushed into command and back into the field. Time and again he fights the unknown, time and again he returns to a drastically changed world, how will a man cope under such circumstances. This book has well deserved the awards placed on it and I reccommend it highly.

Well I've taken up enough space so I'll leave it at that methinks, well apart from word of the post
Word of the post: Apropos - adverb

1.	fitting; at the right time; to the purpose; opportunely.

2.	Obsolete. by the way.

Weekly Quote W/E 12/01/08

Well I've nearly blundered my way through another set of books, taking much longer than needed, but hopefully I'll be able to post about literature and add a splash of interesting colour in addition to these quotations. But for now, here's yet another one...

"So what you're saying is we all have to live like hermits or eskimos or thirdworldsters just so we can save 19 species of hummingbirds so they're around to get fried when the sun goes mental?!" - Mitchel and Webb, That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Vol 1

Back soon I hope

And a happy new year!

Well we're a good nine days in now, but I though I may as well post something welcoming y'all to another few weeks of constantly getting the date wrong!! 2008 will get some getting used to, for some reason I never even realised until now I'm quite fond of 2007, it having a much better ring to it than any other year of the decade, with 2001 being a possible exception.

I digress, the number notwithstanding it is great to be in 2008 and to have a whole year to look forward to. Though for the most part the "new year" period is often taken up with reminiscing over the holidays which already seem so far away. Unlike the great majority of the British public I can still remember what went on over the festive period.

Christmas was early in on the holiday time, with only a few days to cram in a bit of last minute shopping before the big day. I've already detailed Christmas so I won't go into it much other than to say it was a nice day spent with family eating chocolate and watching embarrasing home videos...as always! Immediately after I caught up with some close friends and we went to see I Am Legend which was the well written Sci-Fi thrill ride it promised to be. The next few days were spent "chilling" and catching up with folks.

New Years Eve I spent with Edd, who I hadn't seen for a while due to conflicting work schedules. We set about wasting as much time as we could, bolstered by the fact that work rang to say they'd cancelled his shift and many an hour was spent on his Wii before I realised it was getting dark and I'd better get going before the very inclinous way home became even harder to traverse. On arriving home I got an invitation to have a Bourne Marathon evening to pass the New Year, it was good fun and I got to put my doughnut maker (from mum and dad) to good use. We spent the crossover period arguing about how many seconds there were left as all of our watches disagreed!!

Well I'm now back to work, but I managed to squeeze in a few more catchups, a trip to the much missed Laser Quest (now Quasar) in Chester and even a wedding so all in all a very full and satisfactory holiday period. And that's probably enough from me now, but I'd like to wish all my reader(s) a very happy new year.

Word of the post: Proxy - Proxynoun, plural prox·ies.

1.	the agency, function, or power of a person authorized to act as the deputy or substitute for another.

Weekly Quote W/E 05/01/08

Well a bit late and a bit of a gap again in bloggage I'm afraid. I've had a very satisfactory Christmas holiday which has kept me occupied and away from my computer. I will endeavour to let you know what I've been up to and do some kind of Happy New Year type post at some point, but for now...

"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I beat you with till you realise who'se in ruttin' comman here!" - Jayne Cobb, Firefly.

Speak to you soon

Weekly Quote W/E 29/12/07

A little bit late again, but who'se to quibble over a few days eh? I am ashamed to see I missed a week, but what with christmas shopping and that I can't be blamed surely? Well I'm going to quickly bring you another quote that adorns my Facebook homepage and who knows I might even post something else before the next one!

"To Alcohol! The cause and solution to all life's problems!" - Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

Till whenever we meet again.

Behind the times

I was alarmed to discover that my PC is starting to get well erm...old! I bought two games this christmas, one for myself and one for a friend which I'm now keeping. The alarming thing about the first was that my processor is too slow. For quite some time my 2GHz processor has been head and shoulders above the requirements for games - but the latest Splinter Cell (which ain't that new actually) requires a 3GHz minimum speed to operate. Since I'm something opf a cheapskate I hadn't bought a new game in some time and had assumed my noble steed would bear the brunt of any new game loaded onto it, but apparently not.

Another game will just about squeeze onto my processor's capability, but I was halted in the installation process because there was simply no space on my hard disk to contain it. I found it hard to believe that my 70G had been consumed already, but I couldn't escape the facts or deny that 70G is actually quite a small amount by today's standards. I uninstalled another game and a few useless programs to make room, but I still haven't loaded it out of shock.

While my 1G of RAM still hold it's head high, some games are starting to demand 2G in their lofty "recommended" stats. So what's a boy to do, I do have money to upgrade and maybe get an external hard drive, but with console exclusivity becoming more and more common, the best route may be for me to succumb and get an Xbox 360.

Your sympathy is appreciated

Word of the post: Perennial - adjective

1.	lasting for an indefinitely long time; enduring

P.S. The other game was Star Trek Legacy if you're interested

Merrylicious Festivatal Celebrationism

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas to you all!

(Note: that is much harder to type than to say!)

Well the big day has gone, but it's time I blogged about the fun filled malarky that comprises Christmas. The leadup to Christmas did naturally involve some pannicked shopping, running around the streets of Chester, but thankfully I got pretty much all of it done in two sessions, no wait, three. One gift was for a secret santa for the young people's group at my church. I bought a novelty pen that was about a foot long and still worked!!

My novelty present was very novel indeed. When desperately trying to think of ideas for what people could buy me I jokingly suggested that I could do with a green elephant along with a supply of green jelly babies with which to feed it. And sure enough when i openbed the wrapping of my gift I found a green elephant model (hand crafted) and a pack of jelly babies which rather made my day!! I'll post pictures when I get more batteries for my camera.

I actually found myself in a rather odd, unusually charitable state of mind when I was actually just as excited about other people's reactions to their gifts as I was about recieving mine. I don't know whether that means I'm unusually noble or whether I'm getting more apathetic about what I want, but nonetheless it made the day more cheerful. A factor in this is that I have a longstanding tradition of disguising present which makes it more fun. So a DVD was encased in a chocolates tin, complete with scrunched up paper to fool anyone who tried to shake it etc.

I got some good swag myself, I got a donut maker which I've tried out much to my satisfaction and a mountain of sweets with some DVDs and books thrown in. The amount of food was somewhat disturbing so I guess people think I'm a big eater, but my sister got tonnes of perfume and the like so I guess everyone thinks she smells, which is a small consolation.

I've enjoyed some good Christmas telly, notably the Doctor Who and Extras Christmas specials which were excellent and trips to the cinema to see Enchanted and I Am Legend, both of which were top class of their respective genres.

Well that's enough for now I think, see you soon

Word of the post: Vanquished tr.v.

1. 1. To defeat or conquer in battle; subjugate.
   2. To defeat in a contest, conflict, or competition.

Getting on

Yesterday I went to see my old High School's Carol Service and it was a great event and, as always, set to a very high standard. I arrived only just ahead of the children and managed to sneak in just before the opening procesion, barely finding a seat at all. I spotted a few teachers on my way in, but didn't have time to exchange fond memories with a horde of teenagers at my back ready to march in. I managed to find a seat, shamefully asking if it was free in English - habit that would be frowned upon by the educators I'd just passed.

The children marched in and it doesn't seem too long ago that I was one of them, shivering from standing out in the cold in just a shirt and trousers and occasionally having to deal with the added cold of a well placed snowball strike. Admittedly I don't remember too much of those days, but my better memories come from sixth form when I joined the older boys choir, mostly to get out of lessons, but also because I did genuinely enjoy it. It was a great communal experience as we all had to work together and I got to know a few lads from younger years who are still familiar faces and useful contacts at events like these where most people don't know me. I still remember the old anthem we had, which may have tragically been lost - we'd stand around the piano and start singing "Tom is gay and he's got no friends" repeatedly, moving around until everyone had been sung about, what better way is there to pshych each other up?

We also bolstered the teacher's choir, which now seems to have aquired a few more male voices, which is good as my friends and I provided pretty much the whole bass section back in the day. "Back in the day" definitely seems the way to describe it as I've now gone through Uni and come out the other side leaving a three year gulf between myself and those heady days of youth. I was shocked to see a girl I remember as a cohort in the school production on Nicholas Nickleby who was year 7, maybe 8 and is now a member of the Sixth Form, that made me feel very old!!

I managed to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen since A Levels which was a very pleasant reunion and was glad not to be the only one feeling nostalgic and a bit older!! But it was a great experience and I hope to go to many more.

Word of the post: Cloying –adjective

1.	causing or tending to cause disgust or aversion through excess

Weekly Quote W/E 15/12/07

Ok well I slipped in one post, but it's still not brilliant and I don't have a cold to cover me this time so I have to apologise profusely for lack of content once again and pawn you off with a quote.

"I am not so much disapointed as I am blinded with rage" - Fat Tony, The Simpsons

Till next time...

The power of summon

It seems Facebook has powers over more than just communication, in a rare glimpse of it's true power today I met an school friend I hadn't seen for a while. So it appears Facebook has some ability not only to reaquaint you with friends, but to actually summon them to you!! As it continues to grow one wonders at what new capabilities this website might bring...

Or put another way - I saw my friend the day after adding her on Facebook, what a coincidence!!

Word of the post: Shambolic - adj. Chiefly British Slang

Disorderly or chaotic

Weekly Quote W/E 09/12/07

Well I'm abashed to note that a week has passed without a single post of note, perhaps these weekly things will serve as a reminder to actually post stuff on my blog. As for my absence I blame a cold and a busy work schedule. But enough of my whining, here comes another quotation that tickles my fancy.

"No pain, no pain!" - source unknown...to me at least!

Hopefully I'll speak to you soon

Weekly Quote W/E 01/12/07

OK so it's a little bit late, but i was away on the weekend so was unable to add last week's quote. I'm full of cold at the moment so am unable to think of anything else to write so I'll just post up the next quote from my Facebook profile.

"How can I change the world if I can't even change myself?" - Faithless, "Salva Mea"

Till something interesting happens goodbye

A conspiracy!

While at work the other day, my friend made a shocking discovery. A jigsaw, labeled as a 100 piece jigsaw was found to contain no less than 104 pieces! Assuming that this must be some error on our part we counted and recounted the pieces then assembled the jigsaw to make sure no pieces were missing or belonged to another jigsaw. But there it was, a completed jigsaw with no less than 4 pieces extra to the number clearly displayed on the box. Another jigsaw was checked, it too had four pieces more than displayed on the box. Such widespread deception can only be part of some dark scheme.

Be vigilant - check your jigsaws, if we can't trust Ravensburger it may be too late for all of us!!

In trepidation,

A Figleaf of your imagination.

Word of the post: Ramboesque - adj.

in the aggresive, mindless style of the fictional character Rambo

Weekly Quote W/E 24/11/07

Well since there's not much to actually say about my goings on then I figured some kind of repetitive easy post would come in handy for keeping the blog looking all new and used. Since a dictionary of quotations was bestowed upon me a "quote of the week" seemed like a good idea. OK so most of the quotes will likely come from the Simpsons and other such media, but you never know I might get something good and deep out once in a while.

I'll start off with what's decorating my Facebook page for the first few weeks

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" - Jim Elliot

See you, either in a week or if something interesting happens!

More from Chester

I was brought again to the town of Chester by an unfortunate event. On Impulse I decided to go bowling with my friend Tim. Read more about him at his blog - link on my sidebar. But as we arrived at the alley we discovered that the bowl was fully booked until six (we were there at about two) - an unheard of situation. Left with nothing around us but furniture shops we decided to walk from the out of town retail park into chester itself, a good twenty minutes walk or so. Then we walked around chester for a bit grabbed some food and left.

Such events, annoying as they are, can often be quite fun in and of themselves and I must admit that despite the freezing cold we did have a good time. a highlight was listening to a rather extreme street preacher who was denouncing Islam as we passed and then within the same sentence moved on to the evil of materialism, explaining how the sin of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll came about in the sixties, led by "those four horsemen of the apocalypse from Liverpool, John Lennon Paul..." It was certainly an interesting interperetation, though I can't exactly see how the Beatles were sent from God and brought war, pestilence and the like to Earth!!

It certainly made the day out more interesting!! By the way, this isn't the african guy who is regularly in Chester - that guy's a legend!!!

Word of the post: Pugnacious - adj.

fond of fighting, belligerent

Squirrel based musings

I recently took a trip to Chester, which working afternoons only now affords me. As well as perusing the shops I decided to take a little stroll along the walls adjacent to Chester cathedral.

Whilst approaching the walls I noticed there is a designated pigeon feeding area featuring a dovecote type structure and a mass of the undying lords of traffic dust, commonly known as pigeons (if I haven't already posted by pigeon theory I shall do so soon). But creeping towards them, excellently disguised in similar colours was a squirrel, creeping amongst the birds to access the free food. This incident prompted me to remark to myself - "aha! A fox in wolve's clothing!" and it wasn't for some time that I realised that it wasn't quite the phrase I was looking for!!

Later I was reminded that, pests as they may be, squirrels are rather cute too! I observed one licking itself clean in the usual manner of such animals, but then it decided to dry itself off, and grabbed it's own tail and rubbed it's face clean, much as a human would use a towel. Such innovation got that individual squirrel my attention and respect.

Till next time!

Word of the post: Antidisestablishmentarianism -noun

opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church, esp. the Anglican Church in 19th-century England.

There's a new hero in town!!

Caption reads: Time Travelling Secret Agent Dinosaur For Hire

When you can't think of a post to write you can always steal content from Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade is an excellent website featuring regular updates in comic book form and indepth reviews of games both table top and video. If I had the remotest bit of artistic talent I would be doing my utmost best to rip them off, but as it is you're stuck with this blog for now!! The character above was created in a recent comic discussing the Writer's Guild strike - which left Gabe, the artist, on his own to come up with something to write about!!

Better than reading my explanation would be to visit the site itself - you'll find a link in my sidebar

Writer's Bloc 4 - Delusions of Grandeur

This rather unusual item here is a Hugo award, given to the best writers of Science Fiction every year as well as artists, editors, filmmakers and other contributors to the genre. As an aspiring writer of Science Fiction my heart is very much set on getting a Hugo, Nebula or ( a ta more realistic since it's British but still very much in the far distance) Arthur C. Clarke award.


I do like to entertain the vision that my first publication will so wow publishers and readers that it will win the prize and that fame and fortune will no doubt follow. This is almost certainly to be a delusion, especially for a debut piece, though I do hope that I can continue to improve in standard and create a work worthy of rememberance.

As such having a trophy like this is good so there's something to aim for. If I hope for the cool trophy (and hold the realistic expectation that I won't get it in mind) then it will act as a spur not only for me to write, but for me to ensure that my writing is the best that it can be. In Uni it was simple, I wanted to do the best piece of work to get the best grade, the award will hopefully provide the same kind of motivation, and once a piece is finished if it even gets published I'll be most pleased.

But the whole thing does raise the issue of motivation, especially as I'm in the middle of deciding what to to with my future. I would love to be a writer and since I passed my degree I obviously have some competence in the field and I guess it would be good to make use of my three year's training. But there is also the call of teaching, which I've also got a lot of experience in and I also know I'd be making a difference if I went into it.

I believe that my actions should serve not only myself but the God who made me, and this is where motivation comes in. If I'm just out for the glory and the award then I'm probably better off not bothering 'cause there's a decent chance I'll get neither. But at the sime time, the ability to write is a gift from my maker and I want to be able to use it to his glory.

So there are decisions to be made and things to think through...but it still would be cool if I got the trophy!!

Word of the post: Venerable –adjective

1.	commanding respect because of great age or impressive dignity; worthy of veneration or reverence, as because of high office or noble character: