A Voyage of Discovery!

The discovery of the Americas by Columbus in 1492, is widely accepted as historical fact. Of course, the indigenous peoples of the Americas are testimony to the fact that the Americas were discovered a long time before that, although of course Europeans then (and many still today) regarded Non-Europeans with scant regard, and as little more than savages.

The fact is though, the discovery by Columbus was a re-discovery really, for there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the Americas have been discovered numerous times, by a variety of civilizations. The voyage of Leif Erikkson to Vinland around 1000 A.D. has found proof in the discovery of Norse settlement remains at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland. The Norse sagas recounting their skirmishes with the "Skrellings", the native American Indians, is additionally compelling.

But what of other visits to the American shores?, well there is evidence to suggest that Columbus had sufficient evidence, gleaned from previous reorded visits, to convince him that the Americas existed. He may well have possessed a map as well. In 1396, Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and Earl of Roslin (hmmmm), accompanied by some members of the Zeno family from Venice, set sail for North America, using the same sailing methods employed by the Vikings almost 400 years before, which of course would have been well known to the Sinclairs, who were descended from Norse royal stock. The Templar Tower at Newport in Nova Scotia, along with templar graves there, must have been left as reminders of the voyage. It must be remembered that the legends of the Miqmaq Indians also recall their meetings with these knights, in which there was no violence this time around.

Another reminder however was the Zeno narrative, a map, of which a copy may eventually have made its way into Columbus' hands. This combined with Columbus' visit to Iceland in 1477 suggest that he was amassing evidence on the existence of the Americas in advance of his triumphant voyage where he would claim he had been the discoverer.

Other possible early claimants to an American voyage of discovery are:

• The Welsh Prince Madoc in 1170
• St. Brendan, a 6th Century Irish Monk
• Possible earlier visits to the Americas by Chinese, Egyptians, Phoenicians and many other races.

There is also plenty evidence to suggest that peoples from the Americas crossed the Atlantic many times in the past, often to a less than friendly welcome, but you'll just have to look for details of those encounters yourself!

The Parting of the Waves!

Yes, the waves have parted and like Moses I made it to the other-side relatively intact. Yesterday morning was my final exam (Network Systems), seemed to go reasonably well I think. Afterwards some fellow students and myself went for our lunch and a few (too many?) drinks and a game of pool. I was drinking Magners Irish Cider all-day, which is not a drink I would recommend for this type of activity, with hindsight. It's a nice drink, don't get me wrong, just not suitable for an all-day bender. I say that because I was so thirsty through the night, and my head was quite painful also (ah, the power of understatement).

Anyway, that's College over, so now what? Well I spent an hour on the phone this morning, dealing with a member of Job Centre staff, who now knows way too much about me IMO! Then I'll have my Rent and Council Tax to sort out, and I'll have to sort out the Child Tax Credits as well. The bureaucracy is astounding, so much paper-work, form filling, red-tape and bullshit. I would advise anyone seriously considering moving to the UK to have a job lined up first because you just don't want to have to deal with our benefits system. I t will drive you to despair, honestly.

I will be back to business shortly, with more astounding relevations about the past, but you'll just have to bear with me, as I sort out my financial affairs, which seem to have precedence always.

Check out these prospective In-laws!

I've got a busy day of revision today ahead of my final exam tomorrow, so I've just enough time to post this fabulous clip from Smith and Jones (Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones), a UK comedy duo, who were big in the 80's. They started off on Not the Nine O'Clock News together, with Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson, before becoming a dedicated duo. This particular sketch demonstrates how they perfected the art of being funny without the use of smutty material. Pure natural comic ability.

I was a Roman Standard Bearer!

Dealing with less weighty issues than gaming and comedy classics today! Is there life after death? and is reincarnation real?

Two questions any individual has asked themselves many a time, and may well have discussed with others occasionally, but it's a personal matter really, a matter of faith, not in the Christian sense of the word, as we're leaning more towards Buddhist concepts here, but; you hear stuff, you read stuff, you enquire and you assimilate that knowledge to form your own opinions on what life is really about.

From a personal point of view, I think life is too short to spend it worrying about what comes next (I know people who do though). I've been fed a few Buddhist tidbits over the years and they do tend to make sense, but I'm neither a Buddhist or a Christian, because I don't believe Jesus was the son of God, nor that he actually died on the cross. I suspect that to have been the single biggest con job in history (I refer interested readers to the book "The Messianic Legacy" for detailed clarification).

Where am I going here then, oh yes, re-incarnation. I believe in reincarnation, not because I remember past lives, and I've never been hypnotically regressed (although I fancy it), but I once had the most vivid dream ever, in which I was a Roman Standard Bearer. In the dream I had the full regalia, I was holding the eagle standard, and I was descending a snow-covered mountain, in thick mist, with other soldiers seen dimly at either side. This was followed by a sort of recce-mission sounding out an enemy fort on a hill-top, in the snow, at night, with a clear sky. I can't really emphasise how vivd this dream was, I'm totally convinced that what I dreamt really happened, and I was there.

Anyone has the right to punch holes in my merry tale, but just like any good religious person, I can believe what I like and no-one will convince me otherwise. At least I wasn't Alexander the Great's Chief Eunuch!

Back to Black!

Not necessarily my favourite game of all time, but definitely one of my recent faves, Black lets you unleash awesome fire-power with the added bonus that virtually everything in the game has a propensity to blow-up! Stuff actually begs to be blown-up. One of the best things about the game though, is the way the difficulty cranks up sharply from one level to the next, and it just gets extremely intense.

So, when you find yourself pinned-down under heavy fire, with no ammo and very little health, you have no option but to make a run for it. back where you've come from, scouring for missed items. It's just an awesome game!

A Demonstration In Artifical Intelligence!

So, this morning I had my Intelligent Internet Applications exam, although it's actually Artificial Intelligence, I have no idea why they named it so. It was 2 hrs 15 mins long, 3 questions from 5, and it was very hard. We were prepared for that however, because out tutor had seen the paper a few weeks ago and her exact words were "I'm glad you're sitting this paper and not me, I wouldn't like to be in your shoes!" That put my mind at ease, not! Needless to say, she never really conveyed just how hard it really was.

Anyway, it's also a really good film, A.I. quite long but sentimental enough to make grown men cry (possibly) and that's quite hard to achieve though the medium of television, although not for weak minded women who cry at at even the most pathetic soap-death. I should know, I've seen it happen many a time. Usually, I need to consume a considerable amount of alcohol before I can be made tearsome by something which would normally barely register emotionally.

Now, I only have the Network Systems exam on Thursday to negotiate, then the guys at College and myself are going out for a little drink to commemorate the end of our degree course, following which I'll most likely have to spend an hour or 2 on the phone to Job Centre staff, explaining that I'm no longer a student, but once again a filthy unemployed person, not worthy to receive their pity nor disdain! I look forward to that!

The Rimmer Song!

The Rimmer Song from Red Dwarf, possibly my all-time favourite comedy series!

The Puma's Mouth - Sacsayhuaman!

You have to admit, that's a pretty impressive wall them savages built there at Sacsayhuaman in Bolivia, with blocks weighing up to 300 tons. The joints are not only intricate, but are the reason the wall is till standing, because the area is geologically unstable and highly prone to earthquakes. It's apparent that the builders took account of that in their construction. You can't even slide a sheet of paper between those blocks so precise is the fitting, although we are told to accept that the barbarians who built this structure did not possess metal tools, and they didn't use mortar either (like the Egyptians) because they didn't need it. The walls were originally even higher, but the top rows were peeled off from the back (the ground is level with the top of the wall there) and used to build Spanish churches in the area.

No-one knows exactly when these walls were constructed or who built them, but they are further testimony to the skills possessed by races we know very little or nothing about, peoples who have long since passed into the mists of time. Hopefully, we will be able someday to open the lid on the metaphorical jar of history, and peer inside to see what mysteries the past contains.

Playing the Role of a Beer-swilling Heavy Metal Wizard!

Here's a picture from the very first Lone Wolf book "Fire on the Water" by Joe Dever, illustrated by Gary Chalk. I used to be a big fan of Gary Chalk's work, but must admit I preferred the work of John Blanche (Illustrator of the Sorcery Series), going as far as to buy a White Dwarf magazine on one occasion, becuase the cover had a wonderful piece of work by him, on it!

I would say that my mates and I made fairly strange teens, back in the late 1980's. We used to play MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing), which a lot of people would have called nerdy, but we didn't really play it in the traditional style, we would have a piss-up, and listen to heavy metal at the same time. That added an extra dimension to game-play, because you would start killing your mates game characters systematically after several beers. Characters which they had fostered for months, and which had gathered lots of goodies over that time. That was just a bonus, you could kill their character, really pissing them off in the process, and then take all their characters possessions too. Yes, it did come to blows on several occasions!

The connection is, I guess, that my mates and I, we mainly got together in our Higher Art class, we had similar tastes in music, books etc. About half-a-dozen of us, and all great guys, although globally dispersed now. The most hilarious thing about the class, revolved around a guy who failed the exam badly (no names mentioned). So we all left school, got jobs and so on. I heard that this guy had gone to college in Dundee to do his Art Higher again, and ended up working as a graphic artist, on huge money. Such irony, the one guy who truly demonstrated no artistic talent, became an artist. Life can be so odd sometimes can't it?

The Last Great Cavalry Charge!

This is my Great Grandfather, Alexander Wilson in his uniform. He was in the 7th (Princess Royals) Dragoon Guards. He fought in the Somme, at Ypres I think. Him and his mates had the unenviable task of charging at the German Machine-guns, on horse-back (see his spurs?), and although you may find this difficult to believe, they were armed primarily with lances. Such was the incompetence of the British high-command, and in particular Earl Douglas Haig (in whose memory Poppy day is held), who thought that Cavalry still had a part to play in modern warfare. Of course they were slaughtered wholesale, Alex only survived because his horse got shot, he got knocked-out and ended-up trapped beneath the horse. He landed in hospital with dysentry eventually. They never had much in the way of food, so he'd had to eat raw flesh from his dead horse (horses are very clean animals), because someone stole his ration-pack when he was out-cold beneath the horse.

My Father said that he didn't talk much about the war, even though he kept asking him as a child. He must have seen some terrible stuff though. He did recount one story about seeing a soldier who was leading a donkey laden with ammo up to the frontline, falling into a mud-filled shell-hole. The donkey and the soldier just disappeared, never to be seen again. Everyone just carried on, death was meaningless to them. And to think, all those young men thought that they were heading off on some great adventure, and the ones who came back would never be able to convey how terrible it really was, so they kept it to themselves mainly.