Clarity

I've quit Facebook. Temporarily. My mum once said to me "if your not enjoying why keep going?"  At that point she was talking about the Greenfaulds Theatre Group but those words stayed with me. That's why I'm off Facebook. There's too many posts lately that make me angry or annoyed. Whether it's video of the vile groups of unionist thugs "celebrating" by terrorising Glasgow city centre or the supposed nationalist who have now decided because we didn't get a Yes vote they are "abandoning" Scotland and no longer consider themselves Scottish. I've had enough. To the first lot I say violence is never the answer. No Surrender? No Sense! Glasgow spent millions hosting the commonwealth games. Showing the world that it was a new better Glasgow. A nice place to visit and a great place to stay. In one night all of that has been destroyed. Hang your heads in shame. I've watched a group attack a young man for no reason, a young girl having the Scottish flag ripped from her hands and all to choruses of God Save the Queen. Vile. Is this "Better Together"? I think not.

To the second group, you showed pride in your country. You stood up for what you believed was right. You believed Scotland could stand on it's own two feet and be a nation again. Yet the minute  the country disagree with you, you turn your back. You claim the country is full of cowards because we didn't vote yes. I say shame on you. How can you claim to be a nationalist when you turn your back on your nation when it needs you the most. That is truly cowardly.  What this country needs is unity, not "screw you, I'm leaving" We need everyone, and I mean everyone, whether they voted no or chose yes to stand up and make this country strong. To show the world that we can make this work. 97% registered to vote. 85% did. That is a country politically aware. We need to hold onto that and make sure the politicians follow through on their promises and if not then hold them accountable. We are a great nation of passionate people. We just need to channel that passion into the right places. We need to teach our children right and wrong. To be proud of their heritage as Scots. To learn from the mistakes of the past and the mistakes we have made and stop this cycle of hatred. I really wish I had some great quote to end with. Something patriotic and worthy of a feature film monologue but right now all I can think of is straighten up Scotland, stop being a bawbag!

I'll share this on Facebook via the blogger app but if you want to comment on it  and make sure I see it then comment below. I won't see Facebook replies, I've deleted the app for now.  Cya later! 

Voting

So I've cast my vote in the Scottish referendum and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Throughout this I've gone from a definite No to "undecided" onto "maybe yes" then becoming "damn right it's yes! FREEDOM!" But in the past couple of days I've moved back to undecided. Over the last month or so Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were simply repeating the same things over and over. Alistair Darling all but vanished and Gordon Brown started weighing in with his points, some of which, made sense. I thought this morning would be easy. I'd walk in there full of Scottish pride, grab the ballot paper and place my cross and leave happy in my decision. It wasn't like that. As I walked to the polling station, a short walk to the local primary school and a walk I've done thousands of times into life, weighing up the various arguments from both sides. I arrived, picked up the ballot and headed to the booth. Then I just stood there looking at it. I still wasn't sure. This was a decision that would affect my sons future more than mine. After what seemed like a hell of a long time but was probably only a minute or so, I cast my vote and placed it in the box. I've cast my vote. Now it's up to the rest of the Scottish voters to cast theirs. Whatever the result, I'm confident I've made the right choice. If the rest of the country agrees with me then great. If not, then I'll stand by that decision and move on. It's clear that no matter the result things will change in Scotland, hopefully for the better. We have to put our faith in the most untrustworthy people, politicians, and hope to god they don't screw it up! Cya later!

To Boldly go....

As has probably be come apparent through this blog, I'm a bit of a geek. Although this post might just take my geek points into overload!
I'm a lifetime subscriber to Star Trek Online. I love it! its a great game that really help immerse you in the Star Trek universe. I could go on about the different parts of the game and the various races etc but that would be a whole blog right there and that's not what this one is about.  One aspect of the game i love is the various calender events that take place throughout the year. There's always some kind of reward for completing them and its usually a new ship. This year to celebrate the end of summer STO (as its known in its abbreviated form) were giving away a Federation Support Cruiser. Its an Ambassador class, which for trek fans means its similar to the Enterprise C. Here's what the standard one looks like.

Federation Support Cruiser

Now I've been playing fora while and have amassed a fairly large selection of ships so I really didn't need a new ship. However, this one was free and it was one of the Enterprise style ships so I grabbed it while I could. Now that I have it though what was I going to do with it? Quick overview on STO ships. Each ship comes with a varying number of weapons slots, but fore and aft and a varying number of the different console types. the Consoles add to the effectiveness of the weapons the shields and other ship systems. Each ship also has a Deflector, an Impulse engine, a Warp core and shields.  When you "take it out the box" it has a set of standard weapons and systems for the level of the ship. in this case they were all level VIII. Not bad but my character is capable of using up to mark XII weapons so with its set equipment it was looking like this ship was destined to sit in  my space garage gathering dust. Just another ship taking up space until i deleted it. Then I had an idea. One of the recent updates to the game was a new Research and development system which allows players to make their own equipment to either sell on the exchange or equip onto their ships. My plan for this ship was simple. this ship was free so all of the equipment on it was going to be free as well. I would make everything from scratch for it and build it up using only the parts I made or loot. For the non gamers who have stumbled onto this, loot is items that are dropped after you defeat an enemy in combat or complete a mission.  This would be a heap ship with cheap equipment and so needed a suitably cheap name. So was born the U.S.S. Poundstretcher!

 I started by stripping everything out of the ship leaving it looking like this.

See all those black squares? that's the stuff I needed to make. I'd not really done much on the crafting side but had collected a large amount of supplies needed for it. Within half an hour I'd made 3 phaser array's, a proton torpedo launcher, a deflector, impulse engine, warp core and shield array. My ship was ready to fly! All i needed to do now, before heading off into battle was to give it a suitable paint job. Having picked something just the right side of tacky it was time to launch and head off to pick a fight with some Klingons! That, however, will be a story for another blog. Until then, cya later!

maiden flight

Thoughts for today

Today has been a strange day. The cliche expression would be roller coaster but my old OU tutor Irene would frown on me for using such a worn out cliche. So let's say it's been an emotional chart with more twists than a curly wurly. I wonder if there is really anyone who truly enjoys their work or is that about as realistic as the tooth fairy? Surely there must have been a research study into it at some point. It seems there's been studies into almost everything else so why not that. Think I'll google it later. 

After work however I got the chance to go to the cinema, without a doubt one of the things in life guaranteed to make me feel better. I just love it. Particularly if it's a really good movie that delivers on the hype. It was Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and it delivered with every white blood splattered shot! Theres been a number of films that have tried to copy the feel and look of sin city but nothing even comes close to the artistic masterpieces of Frank Miller and Robert Rodrequiez (and yes I probably have mis-spelt their names) I love everything about movies. Watching them, writing them and making them.  It's a fantasy world I can visit occasionally but after a time I have to return to my own life. Meh. 

I'm writing this on the train and it's my stop next so for now it's time to go. Cya later!

The Geek shall inherit

I've been thinking lately about just how geeky my life is. As an example here's how my day has went so far.

This morning I woke up and closed my alarm clock app on my iPad. I picked up my iPhone, in its Lego phone case, and checked Facebook ( after unlocking it with my fingerprint on the batman lock screen).I did all my usual morning stuff then changed out of my Marvel avengers leisure trousers and my superman t-shirt that I wore to bed. I got ready for work complete with my superman socks and batman belt Picked up my phone, my superman wallet, my wolverine watch and my PlayStation vita and headed downstairs. Decided to check if my online opponents, rollincontrol and "cookie monster rules", had made their chess moves while the kettle was boiling. They had. Made my move and then made my coffee. Packed my R2-D2 bag for work. Put the new "People make Glasgow" badge onto the strap of my bag, right next to the Avengers badges and the Star Wars ones. Picked up my keys, the ones with the zombie key covers, kissed my wife goodbye and headed to my car, Its the one with the Batman children's car seat in it. Connected my vita to the car stereo by Bluetooth and put on the latest Priority One Podcast on the latest update on Star Trek online to listen to while I headed to work. Parked the car and headed into work. Put my bag into my locker and picked up my box of things I need for work, headset, collection of pens, notepad and Lego batman cup. Quickly checked www.denofgeek.com before logging in and starting work. At my break checked if any more moves had been made in the chess games.They had. Made my move then made my coffee. Checked my village in Clash of Clans, made a few comments about Borg kisses on Facebook then went back to work. At lunch time I headed downstairs to grab some lunch. Checked chess games to see if they had moved. They had. Made my move and made my coffee. Ate my lunch while watching True Blood on the Vita then had a conversation about the merits of the Suicide Squad and DC renaming Captain Marvel Shazam with Joe Logue. Went back to work. Break, chess, moves, coffee. Rearranged the Lego pieces on my phone case so that they make a wee table stand when I put it down.  Listened to the rest of the priority one podcast on the way home and posted on the Facebook page of my Star Trek Online fleet about the new crafting system. "Anyone tried it yet? what do you think?" Got home and changed into my jeans and Bowie T-shirt. Had dinner, put Xander to bed then decided to do a blog about geek stuff.
What do you think. Geeky enough or could I squeeze a few more things in there? Anyway, got to go. I want to check out the new crafting system Priority One were talking about in the podcast. Cya later!

Lost

I was off work today. stomach problems kept me up most of the night so took the day off to make sure it was out of my system and to rest. Unlike some people I do need more than 4 hours sleep!
So with Joan off to work and Xander off down to his gran and grandads for the day i had the day to myself to do whatever I wanted to. So what did I do? Nothing. I watched some Big Bang theory and that's about it. Rest of the day was spent looking online for junk.
I could go on about how I'm over 40 and still don't know what I want to do with my life but there's really no point. i need to find something to keep me going. I have a mindless job that pays some of the bills and i don't think that will change anytime soon. Everything else just seems like a waste though. In the past I've spent a lot of time playing online games etc but these days I don't see the point of it anymore. Need to think it over and decide what I want to do. Maybe i just need a new hobby...

Magnificent Seven

I like wooden train sets. Do you know the ones I'm talking about? Wooden trains tracks with little wooden trains that click together magnetically. The ones that little toddlers play with. I love them! They are such simple little jigsaw pieces but put them in the hands of anyone and they just have to build a track. a complete enclosed track. Grown adults will spend ages just laying out the most imaginative layouts possible and trying to make sure the track joins up at the end. Kids however don't really care if it all joins. they will gladly have a track that goes no where because in their imaginations it doesn't matter. I have a PlayStation 3, a PlayStation vita, and a PlayStation 4. I have a PC and a Mac. An iPad and an Android phone yet I still find that sitting on the floor with my baby boy building a train track out of blocks of wood is tremendous fun! another pointless blog done. time for bed. cya later

Sixth (though is anyone really counting? Didn't think so!)

I'm tired.constantly. I'm trying to cut down on coffee so maybe that's the reason. I don't know.There just doesn't seem to be enough time to do the things I want to do these days. I have about 3 months worth of game play on various different games on my consoles and not enough time to play them. I'm trying to do more writing as well and its just not working out as planned.Work just gets in the the way! There are so many things I could say about work but won't, its just not worth talking about. I will say one thing though, I played Chess today at work! I haven't played chess in years but today me and Tim started a game of chess during our break. I'm sure for everyone watching it was boring as hell but I loved it! obviously we never got the game finished but Tim has stored the board in his locker so we can play again tomorrow.

I think that's what life is about. Its about making the most of the situation your in. My work may be boring and dull but it lets me play Chess during my break :) It lets me talk to people I probably wouldn't talk to before and make new friends. So I'm thankful for that.

anyway, I said I was tired and I am so no matter what the cause of my tiredness is there is only one solution, sleep. Night night and cya later.

Fifth

Today didn't start off well. Some guy in work had a go at me for pointing out he was talking bollocks. Never a good start to the day. Meh, that's work for you. Before long though I was home to Xanders lovely wee smile, my family and a cooked Sunday lunch. ( which was hard to eat when you've got the cutest little boy desperate to sit on his daddy's knee and play)
Needless to say the day ended a hell of a lot better than it started. I took my mum to the cinema, something we used to do a lot but haven't bee able to do as much lately. I promised I'd take her to see Mandela: the long walk to freedom. The film is a long one but worth seeing. It doesn't pull any punches in telling the story of Nelson Mandela's life. Well worth a watch. My mum has already picked the next film we're going to see, "12 Years a Slave". its out in a couple of weeks so no doubt I'll have something to say about that then.
So the festive season is drawn to an end and its back to normal from tomorrow for most of us. It all seems ot have passed so quickly and no doubt it'l be Christmas again before we know it. Be safe everyone and no matter what, try and stay positive. It's hard to do these days, particularly when you can find yourself surrounded by negative people who seem to spend their life moaning about one thing or another, but rise above it and smile. Cya later, goodnight

Fourth

Today was my day off from work after 6 days. Tomorrow I'm back at work for another 5 days.So my plan today was to make the most of it. spend as much time relaxing and seeing my wee family as possible. As a result it was a great day. From dancing with my baby boy to playing rock band and starting on my road to Rock god status ( i.e. playing Rocksmith) it was fantastic. Ended the day with watching Man of Steel with my wife and sister in law. All in all, brilliant way to spend the day. Even managed t get a bit of script writing in there as well. Revised a script I sent yesterday. There's a good chance it will be filmed so I'll keep you up to date on how that goes.

As I said, I'm back at work tomorrow. I don't particularly enjoy my work, its not what I'd like to be doing. But it pays the bills and I seem to be able to leave all the hassles of it behind when I go home. Some people seem to just like to moan constantly in work about how rubbish it is. Personally, I don't see the point in that. Let's face it, you spend the majority of your week in your work place so if you spend that time being negative and moaning rather than just dealing with it then its going to make you a negative person. You'll go home grumpy and fed up and then it start affecting your life outside of work. If you just shrug it off and get on with it then its a lot easier to leave it behind and enjoy your time away from there. My job is by no means perfect. I'd love to be doing something creative instead and maybe one day I'll find something where I can do that, but until then this is what I do so I make the most of it. That's all for now so cya later

Third

Today I begin my Journey to being a rock god! I bought an electric guitar! god help my neighbours and family!

Second

Busy day today. Work, then a family party. My wife's cousin turned 18. I may have over done it on the lasagne, Thornton's chocolates and Prosecco. The result of which is a sore stomach and some alone time talking to huey on the big white phone! :/ I'm beyond tired. Quite relaxed though as I'm listening to Joan reading Xander a bed time story through the baby monitor. Possibly one of the most relaxing things to do when your not well. The perfect image of family harmony only interrupted by the sweet sound of my wife's voice saying "Have you taken that wheelie bin out yet?"
I have a bin to take out so cya later.
Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone

First

It s that time of the year when everyone decides its time to update their blog. Why do we wait until new years day? A fresh year, a fresh start? Always ends up being more like a new year a new annual post about how this time your really really going to keep a blog running regularly. Its also when we fool ourselves with new year resolutions. Promises that, like most other promises, are forgotten about within the first couple of weeks. Now that I've just ridiculed everyone's new year resolution and false blogging commitments guess what I'm going to do next? Yep, I'm going to say those immortal words " This year I will blog more". My reason behind it is I want to try and write more, and by that I mean more fiction writing. I enjoy script writing, and it is always exciting to see a script being filmed but fiction writing is a whole different game. Its a more solitary process and the feedback from it is less obvious to see but at the same time it can be more rewarding. I've written and filmed a full length feature film so now its time for the next personal challenge, a novel. Like most people I have an idea and I suppose like more other people I know who write I have made a start on one. Now all I need to do is finish it! A lot easier said than done!I have always struggled to call myself a writer though by definition I am one. A writer is someone who writes, everyone is a writer in that sense. But I think by being able to complete a novel and have other folk read it, hopefully after paying me money for it, then I think I'd be happy to stand up tall, with my book in hand (though these days its more likely to be a Kindle), hold my head up high and say " I am a Writer". We'll see. I might write a classic novel that will go down in the annals of history as a classic to rival H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" or I might end up with a novel which is about as thought provoking as "See Spot Run" Who knows. At least I'm going to give it a try.Well, that's all for now so speak to you later, and have fun!