Snow Doesn't Lie!

Those wonderful snowy vista pictures I was going to photograph for you this morning? Well, there was snow lying last night, but the rain melted it all before I got up, and I was up at 7:30 to put the rubbish out. Then I went back to bed again. May as well get the long lies while I still can. However, the weather seems to be on the downhill, so anything is still possible. Perhaps tomorrow there will be several inches of snow. As for tonight, my father is meant to be coming home from offshore, having worked through Christmas and New Year, but he's practically in the Arctic Circle, so he might not get off after all. I ususally go and pick him up from the train station if he's late, as the buses from the station stop after about 7 pm.

That's why every one around here is so eager to ditch their cars and use public transport (implied sarcasm). Are you listening politicians? The trains and buses are not only ridiculously expensive, but they are always late, the trains in particular. When you want to be somewhere by a certain time, spending an extra hour on the train as it crawls along at about 5mph, is absolutely infuriating. But that's how it is here. Think yourself lucky to be somewhere else. Or, perhaps not. Clearly there are worse places to be. But they probably still have better public transport.

The latest hobby that the wife and I have fell into, is surfing through Bebo to see if people we know have accounts and then laughing at their photos of themselves posing ridiculously. Have they no shame? Clearly there are a lot of people around here with a very high opinion of themselves.

Places Where Things Are Kept!

I ordered a 4 Gb Memory Card "online", for my new digital camera yesterday. That should allow me to snap away merrily for many an hour, given half a chance. As I reported to you yesterday, the weather looks set to take a serious turn for the worse here, tonight. We're on the coast so we don't really get too much snow, but hey, if we do, I'm on it, OK? I'll make sure you get the pics. Fingers crosssed, there'll be some fresh white powder in the morning!

I haven't really been up to much. I turned down the opportunity to go hard drinking again last night, I don't have the constitution I once possessed, to be able to bounce back from a previous day's drinking session, ready to go again the next day. Let's face it, anyone who has (consistently) is probably an alcoholic! But you need money to be an alcoholic, and I've never really had any!

Everybody is back to their respective mill-grindings come Monday anyway, and that'll be it, the holidays gone in a flash again. I've quite enjoyed doing very little. The calm before the storm no doubt. Only a major lottery win could dislodge me from the heading I'm sailing on right now. Maybe even then I would still persist with my impious designs, pausing only to replace my clapped-out motor and to ensure a roof over our heads. Sounds like some sort of New Year's resolution! Well it isn't!

Eat the Yellow Snow!

I'm sorry I never posted yesterday, but I went out after lunch and ended up very drunk, at which point all prospects of a post being posted were seriously dented. I don't make a habit of drinking to excess, or drinking very often, so I'm sure you can forgive me for this one transgression. I was almost sick in the middle of the night, but I managed to overcome it by sheer force of will. I'm still quite impressed by that. Once you get the cold sweat and start salivating heavily, that's usually when you know you've reached the point of no return. But not this time, yay!

I stayed up on New Years Eve to watch the Radiohead webcast, at midnight. Very enjoyable it was too. It was my first opportunity to put my new wireless network to the test. We watched it on one of the kids' laptops in the living room, and there were no problems with buffering or anything, in fact the wireless connections seem just as good as my hard-wired connection. That's something I definitely didn't expect, but well there you go. Isn't technology marvellous.

I've been invited around to a relatives tonight for even more drinking, but I think I might decline. I still feel pretty rough from last night. It was bitterly cold yesterday as well, and it's not set to get better any time soon, quite the opposite in fact, with snowstorms predicted over the weekend and into next week. However, if that proves to be the case, rest assured I will put my new digital camera to work on your behalf, so as to bring you crisp images of fresh powder. How does that sound? Do we have a deal?

Can You Dig It?

I've always thought that in another life I might have been an archaeologist! Not the "Time Team" archaeologist type with knitted jumper, wellies and a ponytail. More like an Indiana Jones or a Jack West character, as in "Seven Ancient Wonders" by Matthew Reilly. At the moment I'm reading "The Alexander Cipher" by Will Adams, concerning a quest to discover the long lost tomb of Alexander the Great. So far, so good. I like the idea of an individual making a discovery that not only alters everyone's perception of the past, but has an affect on the future of the World too. Like in "The Last Testament" by Sam Bourne, where a Sumerian clay tablet looted from a museum in Baghdad turns out to be the last will and testament of Abraham the patriarch.

With me so far, thought not, but let me continue anyhow! I like to revisit themes, so let's imagine for an instant that your understanding of history is fatally flawed, that what you believe to be true is fabrication and in some instances the reality might possibly be very difficult for you to believe. I particularly suspect that the chronology of events might be particularly faulty, because there are inherent problems with carbon dating which have never been properly addressed. This has a knock-on effect on theories of evolution and definitely on human evolvement.

I have posted before regarding my suspicions that perhaps mankind has achieved similar peaks of civilization to the one we're at right now. Perhaps many millenia ago, a civilization not so unlike ours reached a similar juncture and blasted itself back into the Pre-historic. Think about it, if every technological item you had was taken from you, being so reliant on mass production for everything you have, how long would it take for you to revert to a primitive existence? How long would it take you to abandon every aspect of education and knowledge beyond what was required to survive day-to-day? Not long I suspect, and especially so if there were very few survivors.

On that note, have a very Happy New Year!

What Is and What Used To Be!

They don't make toys like they used to, besides which kids of today would be mortified if they did. We used to have fun with our toys, they were both well made and enduring. Modern toys are poorly made and vitually disposable. It was a good job that the toys we had were well made because we believed it to be our duty to test their destructability. They tended to last quite well, and I can assure you that "Tonka Toys" could withstand dozens of blows from a concrete block dropped off of a shed roof. My brothers toy dumper truck was proof of that!

Alas those toys are no more. Another saddening aspect is the fact that we had toys that enabled us to play togther with friends. Nowadays, kids prefer to play on their own, with games consoles, computers etc. It's very sad, and they will more than likely grow up with very poor social skills, which is bad news for the next generation, because they'll make worse parents than this generation, and that's saying something. Good luck future people!

This is supposedly an age of global communication, and I find it deeply ironic that people have difficulty using a phone for its intended purpose (ie. Talking) and while they can E-mail and text away all day long, they have great real problems holding a conversatuion face-to-face. Isn't that a stinging indictment of where we're at right now? Anyway, I'm off to check eBay and see if I can get myself one of those Polaris submarines with missiles that actually fire.... ah, the toys of yesteryear! Smell the faint whiff of nostalgia!

This Is Magic!

Finally, I've managed to get my wireless network set up, and even more importantly, I've bought a digital camera at long last. I will soon be able to provide you with quality homemade original images for my posts. In the meantime, here are the best homemade videos ever: The David Blaine Street Magic Spoofs!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Hang On A Minute!

My new router arrived today, and I'm using it right now you'll be pleased to here. I was intending to set the kids laptops up on a wireless network, but there seems to have been a hitch there, which I can't see a way around without purchasing a USB wireless adaptor for my own pc. You don't need to know about that though, as it's just one of these things that the ISP forces me to endure.

Many months ago I mentioned the possibility of my acquiring a digital camera, in order to "sex up" this blog, like some secret government dossier about WMD's. Well, that was put on the back-burner for some reason which I can't recall, but now it's back on the table! It has been resurrected like some sort of messiah. Only, don't expect any miracles, even if I do get one. Let's just say that some family member was unexpectedly generous to me this Christmas time. That generosity will not go unrewarded, the images provided for this blog will be sufficiently rewarding as a visual feast much akin to a roman banquet.

It's not all good though, my car battery is flat again, and that's rather disturbing. I only charged it up the other day. It has been under-used this week, but I hope it's not a bad omen. I might have to buy another car if things don't look up. Let's just say that the battery is the tip of the iceberg if I'm honest. With an MOT due in March, at which time I will be totally reliant upon ownership of fully functioning a motor vehicle, I will have to have a car no matter what!

The Bravest of the Brave!

I've just finished reading "The War of Wars", by Robert Harvey, which recount the history of the Napoleonic Wars. It was a very interesting, although lengthy read, and strangely, contrary to the writers intention I'm sure, I felt some sympathy for Napoleon by the end of the book and was actually hoping he'd win Waterloo, which was never going to happen. It was however a near run thing.

The Napoleonic Wars produced many memorable characters though, and it would seem that the greatest are largely forgotten. Take for instance the Scotsman Thomas Cochrane who was a far more talented, courageous and successful naval commander than Nelson ever was, but was despised and even betrayed by his contemporaries because of his success. On the French side, could there be anyone more amazing on the field of battle than Marshall Ney?

The answer is no, he fought in almost every battle under Napoleon, and unlike Napoleon he was constantly in the thick of it. He fought several amazing rearguard actions when hopelessly outnumbered, especially on the retreat from Moscow, and was apparently the last man out of Russia. The French soldiers called him "the bravest of the brave". Unfortunately, this amazing man was executed by a firing-squad in Paris only several months after Waterloo. Napoleon had held him to blame for the loss of that battle, but as the book clearly indicates, as per usual, the main mistakes were Napoleon's own. He never took the blame for anything though, it was always someone else's mistake!

You've Had A Bad Day!

Things been a little rough at work lately... ? I saw this and thought of you. See... things aren't nearly as bad as you thought they were!

Have A Wicked Xmas!

Somewhere... in an alternative Universe!

....and?