I lost my Uncle John this year, and the actions of his sister (my mum) has made me realise just how much I’ve come to despise them.  I tried this year (again) to build a relationship with them, but I’ve finally learned a valuable lesson and won’t be extending that hand of friendship again.

Time to move on. Sink or swim, they are not part of my life now, haven’t been since 2002 really – if I’m honest. But you know it’s my mum when alls said and done, and it would have been nice to have some kind of relationship with her …

Still, it’s not to be. I’ve had enough of trying.

2012 holds the relaunch of Applied Vectors, a family wedding, the queens jubilee, the Olympics and if the nutters are to be believed – the end of the world….. (not holding my breath on that one)

So fare thee well as the wheel turns and the year begins again, may the Lord and Lady hold you safe, and bring you peace in your lives. Blessed Be.

I really should blog more, just never seem to have the time lately, what with Facebook, Twitter etc ….

Anyways, i’m here now, better late than never eh?

So whats going on?

At the moment, mostly procrastinating about Open University work, RPG projects for April next year, artwork … same as usual really.

Open University

On to Book 4 The Right Chemistry; what a nightmare … I never did Chemistry at school so i’m being hit in the face with University level Chemistry … out … of …. depth …. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but it is a massive amount of hard work and tbh I am struggling.

RPG Projects

Work still continuing, need a ton of Steampunk art for the first book; I can do some of it myself, but not all. may have to have a word on Deviantart with some Cosplayers/artists see if they’re willing to be involved …. otherwise I may have to scrap the project until a later date – i’m less than 6 months away from my expected release date and I dont want to be rushing about at the last minute.

Artwork

Where can I start …. LOADS of ideas for pictures, no time to practice my digital art skills or even to fire up Poser and do some 3d art

You know I ALWAYS do this to myself; end up with too much on my plate, and then I end up ditching everything and then after a time starting again, then it builds up to the point of constant frustration (like now) … and so on, constant pattern of behaviour …

I get that Rupert Murdoch is a bad guy, I get he’s probably involved in the whole phone hacking thing at some level, but surely he’s still human and is due to the same rights as any other person?

I’m talking about the shaving foam pie incident at the public inquiry yesterday. Some runty little protester shoved a ‘custard’ pie into Mr Murdoch’s face. Now, I’ve nothing against custard pies or runty little protesters for that matter (as a rule), but if i walked down the street and shoved a custard pie into an 80 year olds face, Id be in a LOT of trouble, and you bet your sweet ass the media would report it as a terrible and shocking attack on a defenseless old man.

That given, why do the media seem to think its funny? “Humble Pie” is the headlines in a lot of newspapers. The smirky presenters on ITV’s Daybreak seem to be having quite a laugh about it.

Am I really the only one to find it wrong? Really? Seriously?

Should I be joining in? Morally I think not. However, peer pressure would seem to indicate there is something wrong with ME because I don’t find it funny or to have been the right thing to have occurred. Well, if you honestly believe it was right to attack an 80 year old man, and find it entertaining and funny, then YOU are the one with something wrong with you. Its not about opinions, its about the basic rights of another human being.

The whole public inquiry is a joke. It means NOTHING, not when there is a criminal investigation going on. It should have taken place AFTER the criminal investigation had ended, but then politically being seen to not be doing anything about is damaging to public opinion of the useless money and power grabbing political parties.

Its not that I like or dislike Mr Murdoch. I really don’t care either way. He runs a massive media company, that means he’s a businessman. There is no room in business for sentiment or being ‘nice’, generally its about profit.

/end rant

Anyways, we went to the JORVIK Viking Centre  http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/ while we were there. Cost us £18.50 for both of us to get in. I was quite looking forward to it, as I love historical places ….

What  a RIPOFF! about 4 rooms (including the gift shop) and one ride …. most of which was in the dark. OK they’d spent a lot of money on fancy screens, glass floors and puppetry (on the ride) but dear me … Content people, content!

No wonder there’s no place on the website for reviews or feedback about your visit.

I felt cheated and so disappointed, and to think we’d Gift Aided the tickets too!

Despite uninstalling WOW and cancelling my account way back in August last year, im now playing again and enjoying it.

There were many reasons for deleting it back then, it was pre-cataclysm, they’d taken away Volley from my Hunter, my wife couldnt run Patch 4.0 on her PC, and I had Open University work to complete.

However, now Im back in actually impressed with the new Hunter. Multi shot has no limitations on how many targets it’ll hit and the boost in damage, no need to worry about food for pets and ammo for the bow/gun etc is win.

But .. I miss being able to learn new weapon skills.

Kinda forgot it was here

Anyways lots happenned since 06/25/2010 its really been nearly a YEAR since my last blog update? Jeez man didnt mean to leave it THAT long.

In the intervening period much has happened, gained new friends, lost some, nearly finished the first module  of the Open University Course, been many different places etc

Promise my next update will be longer

I’ve been away from my Blog for a bit (which is unforgivable I know) , but lots of stuff has been going on in the world outside of the internet.

I’m officially a student, having enrolled in an Open University course. I’ll be studying Environmental Science. I’m really looking forward to it, loving to learn new things and expand what I know about the world around me. I’ve wanted to take the step forward toward a degree for a long time … I did the first semester of an Animation course at SUnderland University as a part-time course a few years back, sadly the second semester needed me to be there two days a week and my then boss refused me the time. So then the choice was either quit my job and not be able to afford to go to uni, or abandon the course.

I took the latter option, figuring something else might turn up which would allow me to resume the course. That never happened, and I shelved the whole idea. After I met Anne (my now wife) she helped boost my confidence and now I feel ready to tackle University again. Luckily the Open University is there and accepted me onto the course, it’ll take six years, but It’ll be awesome to learn

I’ve been thinking of buying hosting and a domain name just for me – a personal website as it were (I have very good web design skills and it seems a shame to waste em) and then use the site to show the world the things I like. What do you think?

Ok i’m off for now, want to work on my home-made Warcraft tabletop RPG, hang the washing out, and do the washing up – all domesticated me :p

Lots of things have happened since my last blog post: Two issues at work – one annoying and one serious, a very good friend of mine has asked me to put her poetry into a book, my best mate is coming down to visit in June, another mate is coming to visit in August and i’ve taken the step and joined a political party.

Work Issues

Had a couple issues with childish gossip and behaviour from work colleagues. Is it me or does anyone else sometimes feel like they are working with children?

Poetry Book

Laurie has asked me to look at her poetry and see which might be suitable for publishing. So far (and I haven’t been through them all yet) they seem fine. I’m sure all 88 of them will be either perfect or close to. Some of the ones I’ve read have given me some strong ideas for artwork to go with them.

Visiting Mates

My best mate John Kimmins is coming down from Chester-le-Street in County Durham to visit me and Anne on the 10th June. As we haven’t seen him for well over a year, he will be a welcome sight.

Then in August Tracy Pearce is coming down from Grimsby to visit. I’m hoping the visit may help Tracy with her depression, with it being a new environment with friends and a break from the normal routine.

I’m really looking forward to seeing them both again.

Politics

OK so I joined The Green Party as a paying member.  I just feel that they at least have a positive outlook in politics. The party is run by volunteers and now that they have an MP with Caroline Lucas at least we match the rest of the EU in having a Green Party MP in Parliament. Check out their policies and I’m sure you will see one or two things that you may agree with.

A belief, upheld by some men and women, and based on a spiritual, mental, intellectual, and emotional premise maintaining that one sex is in every way superior to the other.

Some people do this as a matter of course, at one time men thought they were better than women, and now it’s the other way around, advertisements consistently show men as stupid wife beaters, women binge drinking, pissing in public, puking over all and sundry, and media that reinforces the new sterotype of Ladette (eg Alexandra Burke’s “Broken Heels” where she goes on about women being better than men even in broken heels)

As a man who has always seen men and women as equal – we both have our strengths and weaknesses but neither make one sex inferior to the other. It’s bad enough that men these days get portrayed as stupid in the media but when a woman in a partnership with a man treats him like a second class citizen it becomes well out of order.  I have been in that situation, my last wife physically abused me (I was beaten on more than one occasion and even threatened with a knife), I was always being put down as stupid and thick and it just isn’t right.

Anyone who subscribes to either view should be treat in the manner they treat others until they get the message loud and clear.

My advice to those kept under the thumb or under control by their partner is:

“Never let the hand you hold, hold you down.”

And to the people who partake in such behaviour:

“Shame on you”

Mind you, It got us out of the house and we went for a long and very pleasant walk around Desborough in the sunshine. It got me to thinking what would the world be like nowadays if someone pulled the plug on the whole world wide web?

Lots of people who talk to each other across oceans and halfway round the world would have to rely on old fashioned letters, and telephone calls – I don’t even know how long it was since I spoke to Laurie on the telephone (and she’s only as far as Canada), I’ve spoken to Sherry and the family once (I think) but the majority of my foreign friends I have never spoken to them, except thru Facebook and msn/yahoo. How weird is that though?

Then again I would never have known these people without the internet, and I can tell you my life would be so much poorer I met my wife Anne through a forum on the internet, and that was through the daughter of a workmate who asked me to go along and join up. Laurie and Sherry and them are through another long dead ezboard forum.

The internet is a wealth of information and friends you may never meet face to face – also …. it can be a dangerous place, where some are at risk from human predators.  I guess it will always be a double-edged sword.